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THOUGHTS 



THE AFFLICTED; 



APPENDIX OF SELECTIONS 



FROM VARIOUS AUTHORS. 



"To be above the stroke of the passions, is a condition equal to angels : to 

be in ;> i-tat.- of sorrow without the sense of sorrow, is a disposition beneath 

. but duly to regulate our sorrows, and bound our passions under the 

roil, is tho wisdom, duty, and excellency of a Christian." — Flavkl. 

WITH AX INTRODUCTION, 

BY 

REV. GEORGE B. CHEEVER, D. D. 



AUBURN AND BUFFALO: 

MILLEB, ORTON & MULLIGAN. 

1854. 



Gr 1 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hun- 
dred and fifty-four, 
BY MILLER, ORTON & MULLIGAN, 
In the Clerk's OflSce of the District Court for the Northern District of 
New York. • 



MILLEB, OETON * MULLIGAN, 
AVUUKff. 






CONTENTS. 



PART FIRST. 



PAGB. 

Introduction, by Rev. Dr. Cheever, .... 7 

Preface, 13 

Afflictions Universal, . . . . . . .15 

Uses of Affliction, 18 

Abuse of Affliction .31 

Comfort in Affliction, '.40 

All things given us with Christ, 52 

Lessons of Sickness, 63 

Fears of Death, 15 

Preparation for Death, 88 

To Die is Gain, 98 

The Pilgrims near the end of their Journey, . . 104 
Death followed by Eternal Life, . . . .lit 

The Heavenly Recognition, ..... 129 
A Reminiscence, ....... 141 



PART SECOND. 







PAGE. 


Religion a Solace in Affliction, . 


Robt. Hall, 


153 


Do do do 


Bishop Hall, 


155 


Consolation sought and found, 


J. Boweing, 


157 


Divine Consolations, 


J. P. Thompson, 


159 


Christian Resignation, 


Anonymous, 


165 


Do do 


Cudworth, 


166 


Do do 


COWPEK, 


166 


Do do . 


Milton, 


167 


Best in God, . 


J. "W. Alexander, 


168 


Heaven upon Earth, 


Bishop Hall, 


172 


Delight in God only, . 


Frances Quarles, 


176 


Sickness, .... 


"W. S. Plummer, 


178 


Death, .... 


B. SCHMOLKE, 


184 


The Dread of Death, 


Pascal, 


186 


God determines the Time and 






Manner of our Death, 


Pascal, 


188 


Do do do 


Drelincourt, 


189 


The Hope of a Resurrection, 


Flavel, 


195 


To Die is Gain, 


Baxter, 


197 


A Good Man's Departure, . 


H. W. Beecher, 


202 


The Old Age of the Christian, 


J. "W. Alexander, 


204 


Heaven — 






Its Holiness, 


Baxter, 


206 


Its Eternity, 


. Robt. Phtlip, 


208 


Its Society, ^ 


Buchanan, 


211 


Its "Wonderful Glory, 


Bishop Hall, 


212 


Its Chief Attraction, 


J. Burns, 


213 


Paul's Estimate, 


Hannah More, 


214 



CONTENTS 




V 
page- 


Oh, Talk to me of Heaven, 


Bowles, 


N 215 


To an Infant in Heaven, 


Thos. "Ward, 


218 


Education in Heaven, 


Anonymous, 


220 


The Land which no Mortal may 






know. .... 


Bernard Barton. 


223 



INTRODUCTION. 



Passing by a region of burnt land, one could not but 
be struck with the sadness of the picture ; it was so 
black and dreary, that nothing could be a more em- 
phatic image of desolation. The poorest weeds in the 
fields bordering upon it, looked rich and attractive in 
the comparison ; and it seemed as if never again could 
any green thing grow out of it'. The next year, at the 
same season, it was all waving with a precious harvest 
of golden grain ; it was yielding more than any other 
acres in the man's grounds under cultivation. 

Such is the effect of trials improved by grace ; such 
is the gracious object of them. They are like fires to 
clear up the land, and burn away the weeds and stub- 
ble ; and out of the very ashes comes a new life. But 
under the present operation of them, being in them- 
Belves not joyous, but grievous, the soul seems con- 
sumed by the Lord's anger, and troubled by his sore 
displeasure. For a while it mourns, as in sackcloth 
and ashes, as a field blackened and desolate ; but after- 



Vlll INTRODUCTION. 

wards puts on its beautiful garments, and in new revi- 
ving life and joy arises and shines, enriched with the 
peaceable fruits of righteousness. 

Afflictions are very solemn things. They are God's 
most precious, most effectual remedies, often the last 
resort, when active treatment of the patient is neces- 
sary. Persons sinking into lethargy from certain poi- 
sons, or wandering in the snow, and falling asleep from 
intense cold, have to be treated with scourging, and 
compelled to move on, or they sleep on, and never can 
be wakened. The endurance of the severest discipline 
is better than lukewarmness. Cecil's pomegranate 
tree, cut half-way through by the gardener, taught him 
a sweet lesson in a time of bitter personal trial. God 
was cutting him to the quick, but it was because he 
desired fruit, and required it. 

The purpose of God in our afflictions is to be deeply 
considered ; for the accomplishment of his design in 
them, or the failure of it, and the consequent waste of 
his discipline, is that which stamps them for eternity. 
God has therefore been at great pains in his Word to 
make the meaning of them plain, and to instruct us as 
to the way in which we may certainly secure the ben- 
efit of them. 

But God's remedies are very different things, con- 



■iDUOTION. IX 

sidered as applied to Christians, and to those who are 
yet without Christ, strangers from the covenants of 
promise, dead in trespasses and sins, having no hope, 
and without God in the world. When afflictions come 
as judgments, they are terrible indeed. O Lord, cries 
the prophet, correct me, but not in thine anger, lest 
thou bring me to nothing. And David prays, O Lord, 
rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in 
thy hot displeasure. And God says, concerning his 
chastening discipline with his own people, I will not 
make a full end of thee, but I will correct thee in 

i re, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished. 
I know O Lord, says David, that thy judgments are 
right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. 
And Isaiah says, the Lord will have mercy upon his 
afflicted. Sis afflicted arc his beloved, whom, because 
»V68j he rebukes and chastens. The flail of afflic- 
tion is to beat out the corn, and separate the chaff, and 
in such discipline the soul has reason to rejoice, if it 

' find the disposition to submit, and to trust in 
God's parental care and mercy. " Wherein ye greatly 

■. though now for a season, if need be, ye are in 
heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial 

or faith, being much more precious than of gold 
thai pejisheth, though it be tried with firo, might be 



X LNTBODCOTION. 

found unto praise and honor and glory at the appear- 
ing of Jesus Christ." 

Now for the right estimate of affliction, for the mea- 
sure of it as to its bitterness, and for the securing of 
its precious fruit, we have two great passages in God's 
Word, not to mention the multitude of passages which 
teach God's merciful purpose and parental love. For 
I reckon, says Paul to the Romans, that the sufferings 
of this present time are not worthy to be compared 
with the glory that shall be revealed in us. Here is the 
measure. It is just a reduclio ad absurdum. Examined 
by this standard, they are hardly a thing to be thought 
of, save only as God's hand, and therefore unspeakably 
important for his purposes. And therefore again, 
Paul soberly and customarily, and out of his own and 
his fellow disciples' experience, calls what we should 
doubtless regard as severe trials light afflictions, and 
in the same passage shows us how, and how only, 
they are to be turned into weighty blessings, or to 
result in such. " For our light affliction, which is 
but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding 
and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the 
things which are seen, but at the things which are un- 
seen ; for the things seen are temporal, but the things 
unseen are eternal." Here is the rule. Afflictions 



INTRODUCTION. XI 

themselves are as a telescope, through which we look 
into the heavens. But we must look through the tel- 
escope, not at it, nor upon it. And just so, we must 
look heyond afflictions, and not merely upon them. 
We must look beyond them by means of them ; we 
must look into heaven and eternity by looking through - 
them. So used, they bring heaven near, they help our 
faith, they dicipline our souls, they wean our hearts 
from earth, they reveal our heavenly inheritance, they 
take our afflections there, they make us willing that 
our earthly house of this tabernacle should be dissolved, 
they cause us to see our house which is from heaven, 
and make us feel and know that it is ours. It is by 
the consent of the spirit given unto us, accompanying 
our afflictions, that it is pi oved that God hath wrought 
this self-same thing in us. And thus, looking at the 
things unseen and eternal, Christ the hope of glory is- 
formed in our hearts, and the eternal weight of glory 
is wrought out for us, even by the instrumentality of 
our earthly trials. 

But all this wonderful arrangement of Divine Love 
and Grace will be more fully unfolded in the book 
before us, to which, with these few thoughts upon so 
vast a subject, we commend the reader. Let him re- 
member that it is a book of experience, not specula- 



Xll IXTilODUCTIOX. 

tion ; and one thing is requisite in order that we may 
truly sympathise with Christian experience in what- 
ever form, and be benefitted by it, or by those afflic- 
tions that are a part of it, and that is, earnest, secret, 
constant prayer. 



PREFACE 



In preparing the following pages, the author has de- 
sired to address those especially, who, like himself, 
have had some experience of affliction. Written, as 
was most of the volume, during journeys for health, 
or in the midst of bodily weakness, the writer does 
not claim for it that critical accuracy and finish which - 
he could have desired it, to possess. He has aimed, 
however, to make his book useful ; and has prepared 
every page of it with the consciousness that his day 
of labor would soon be- ended, and that he would 
shortly be where human praise or blame is a matter 
of no regard. " The design of the work," to use the 
language of a learned Bish< p, " is sufficient to give it 
protection, if it cannot gain it approbation. It hurts - 
nobody, and therefore may pass in safety ; and it of- 
fers its service to do everybody good, which, methinks, 
should be taken kindly by those who stand in no need 
of it." 

In the First Part of the volume, an attempt has 



been made to meet some of those questions which al- 
ways arise in the minds of afflicted persons, and to 
impart such instruction and consolations as they seem 
to require. In this Part, the writer does not claim en- 
tire originality. His essays would have been less val- 
uable than he now esteems them to be, had he rejected 
whatever thoughts could be gathered from the pages 
of the wise and good. But where the language of 
others has been appropriated, it has been marked with 
the usual signs of quotation. 

The Second Part consists of extracts of a practical 
character, from the writings of good men of various 
ages. The compiler begs for them a frequent and at- 
tentive reading, being assured that they will appear 
more precious with every perusal. 

Go forth, then, little volume, and, if such honor may 
be given thee, comfort them that mourn in Zion, give 
them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and 
the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness. 

December, 1853. 



®{f0iuj|ts for \\t %Mxi\ti> 



AFFLICTIONS UNIVERSAL. 



" There is nothing better established by uni- 
versal observation," says Eobert Hall, " than 
that the condition of man upon earth is, less or 
more, an afflicted condition." All men have 
sinned, and therefore all men suffer. Their af- 
flictions assume a great variety of forms. ]STow, 
it is sickness, with its languors and pains, its al- 
ternating hopes and fears, and its forebodings of 
distressing death. Now, it is death itself, tear- 
ing asunder the tenderest ties, and filling the 
heart with unsupportable sorrow. And now, it 
is remorse, or corroding anxiety for the welfare 
of others, or grief in their shame. And now, it 
is poverty and want, or persecution, or frustrated 
plans and disappointed hopes. 



16 THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

Such is the common lot. The old and the 
young, the rich and the poor, the learned, the 
highly honored, the ignorant, the degraded, all 
experience, sooner or later, some form of afflic- 
tion. There is no earthly refuge from these 
storms of life. "While suffering under the pres- 
sure of some particular trial, we are prone to 
think our case peculiar, and to charge God with 
partiality and injustice. It ought, surely, to 
repress all such murmurings, for us to reflect 
that God is a sovereign, who gives no account 
of his matters, and that we are sinners, deserving 
far severer punishment than we receive. But, 
besides this, did we only look around us, we 
should see that others suffer, in their turn, the 
same or similar trials, and that no change of 
time or circumstances could altogether deliver 
us from afflictions. 

It would, indeed, be ungrateful in us, and 
most unjust, not to acknowledge that God min- 
gles many mercies with our trials ; and that he 
has made special provision for the comfort and 
happiness of his children ; but the fact still re- 
mains, that life upon earth is to all men, in a 
greater or less degree, a period of affliction. 
" Though a man live many years, and rejoice in 



AFFLICTIONS LXIVEBSAL. It 

tliera all ; yet let him remember the days of 
darkness, for they shall be many. All that 
cometh is vanity." This world is not designed 
to be our rest. It is intended, rather, as a place 
of discipline, to fit us for a higher and better 
state. It is crowded with tokens of God's good- 
ness ; yet evils abound in it sufficient to show us 
its vanity as a supreme good. That highest good 
must be sought alone in God, and in a hope of . 
eternal life. 



USES OF AFFLICTION. 



The uses of affliction ! How many, and how 
beneficent are they ! What a career would our 
fallen .race have run, had not afflictions, co- 
working with the gospel, been cast into the por- 
tion of God's gifts to man ! 

They are often the means of the conversion 
of sinners. Not always are they attended with 
this happy result. Some persons fail to recog- 
nize, and others pervert and abuse, God's gra- 
cious designs towards them. They sink down 
under their chastisements, dejected, despairing, 
or sullen and rebellious ; or the}- plunge into 
the amusements and business of the world to 
drown their sorrows, and to silence the voice of 
conscience and of the" Holy Spirit. And the 
sorrow of the world worketh death. 

But in many other cases, afflictions work out 
a happier result. They effect what other means 
seem powerless to accomplish. While man is 
in the enjoyment of all that heart can wish, he 



USES OF AFFLICTION. 19 

thinks little of eternity and of his religious ob- 
ligations. A kind Providence gives him, it may 
be, health, friends, prosperity in business, the 
comforts of home and a thousand other nameless 
blessings, which are designed to draw his heart 
heavenward, and to bind him to God's service. 
Alas ! he is pleased full well with the gifts, but 
too often forgets the Giver. He is surrounded, 
also, by the institutions of the gospel ; is con- 
vinced of the truth and importance of religion, 
and admires its happy influence on the character 
of others, and purposes at some future day, to 
give it his serious attention ; but for the present, 
is satisfied to treat it with practical neglect 
Xow, what but affliction can arouse and save 
such a man ? Other means having proved of no 
avail, God lays his heavy hand upon him and 
prostrates him in the dust. And behold the re- 
sult ! He is humbled, is made thoughtful, is 
affected with the view of his ingratitude ; he 
repents of his sins and enters upon a new life. 
The remedy was indeed painful, but was, appa- 
rently, the only one that could save him. He 
now praises the Hand which chose him in the 
furnace of affliction, and he will continue to do 
bo throughout eternity. 



20 THOUGHTS FOB THE AFFLICT 

y It appears from Scripture history, that afflic- 
tions led Manasseh to seek the God of his fa- 
thers ; and that while the blessings of Providence 
were perverted and abused by Nebuchadnezzar, 
divine judgments humbled him and led him to 
I seek God's favor. The Nmevites grew wanton 
and rebellious against God, until the shadow of 
his wrath caused them to repent in sackcloth and 
ashes. Famine brought back the Prodigal to 
his father's house. Yery few came to Christ, 
while on earth, to learn the way of life, except 
those who had suffered some form of affliction. 
And very many now feel no need of the Saviour, 
until they have been called to endure some sort 
of trial. They are satisfied with the world so 
long as it appears bright and alluring, and need 
to have a cloud cast over it, in order to make 
them think of heaven and of the preparation 
necessary for entering it. 

Moreover, afflictions are often instrumental in 
reclaiming Christians who have wandered from 
their duty. God does not willingly grieve his 
children, but when he sees them engrossed in 
the vanities of life, corrupting their hearts and 
dishonoring the cause of religion, he is, as it 
were, compelled to chastise them. As a kind 



USES OF AFFLICTION. 21 

father, on detecting some wrong principle or 
habit in his child, immediately endeavors to cor- 
rect it, and that by punishment if necessary ; so 
God rebukes the errors and sins of his children, 
with severity, if that is needful, to reclaim them 
to duty. "Were he regardless of the real good 
of his children, he would let them go on unre- 
strained, but since he loves them with more than 
a fathers heart, he deals with them as their wel- 
fare requires. " Whom the Lord loveth, he 
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he 
rcceiveth." He sweeps away his wealth, it may : 
be, and shows him the infinite importance of be- 
coming rich in faith, and of laying up treasures 
in heaven. Or he takes an idol from his bosom, 
and teaches him to give God an undivided heart, - 
and to make his glory the chief end of his life. 
Or he lays him upon a bed of sickness, makes 
him survey his past life in the light of eternity, — 
his broken vows, his Christian reputation tar- 
nished, his usefulness impaired, God's goodness 
abused, and His holy name dishonored. And 
can lie take such a serious review without benefit ? 
Behold the happy result in his increased humil- 
ie watchfulness and prayerfulness, and his 
entire dcvotedness to the Redeemer's kingdom. 



22 THOUGHTS FOK THE AFFLICTED. 

" iSays Baxter : " Afflictions are God's most ef- 
fectual means to keep us from losing our way to 
our heavenly rest. Without this hedge of thorns 
on the right hand and on the left, we could 
scarcely keep in the way to heaven. If there 
be but one gap open, how ready are we to find 
it, and turn out at it ! "When we grow wanton, 
or worldly, or proud, how doth sickness or other 
affliction reduce us ! Every Christian, as well 
~«,s Luther, may call affliction one of his best 
schoolmasters ; and with David may say, ' Be- 
fore I was afflicted, I went astray ; but now have 
I kept thy word.' Many thousand recovered 
sinners may cry, ' O healthful sickness ! O com- 
fortable sorrows ! O gainful losses ! O enriching 
poverty ! O blessed day that ever I was afflict- 
ed ! ' Not only the green pastures and still 
waters, but the rod and staff, they comfort us." 
It is said that a certain artist, while engaged 
in ornamenting the ceiling of a cathedral, was 
observed to walk back and forth upon the scaf- 
folding on which he stood, admiring his painting, 
the work of many years, until, completely ab- 
sorbed in the beauty of his production, he re- 
treated to the very edge of the platform, a fall 
from which would have been instant death. His 



USES OF AFFLICTION. 23 

companion seeing his danger, and fearing lest a 
word or motion to seize him would endanger his 
life, suddenly dashed a foul brush upon the ceil- 
ing, completely defacing it. "With a cry of in- 
dignation and despair, the artist rushed forward 
to save his paintings, and thus escaped death. 
So God often finds it necessary to destroy our 
idols, and blast our joys and hopes, that he may 
save our souls. 

Afflictions tend also to fit the Christian for 
great usefulness. When the disciple of Christ 
first sets out upon a religious course, he engages 
with zeal in his Master's cause, and devotes 
himself and all that he possesses to his service. 
lie is a burning and shining light ; he is a hap- 
py ( hristian, a " growing Christian," and is em- 
inently osefal. But at length, almost impercep- 
tibly to himself, the ardor of his love abates. 
Kia spiritual foes prove too strong for him. He 
is drawn into a career of worldliness and sin, 
and his light which once burned so clear and so 
beneficently, becomes greatly obscured. Faith- 
ful to his promise to keep those whom he has 
chosen, God now deals with him as infinite wis- 
dom sees his case requires ; mingling mercies 
and judgments with heavenly skill, detaching 



24: THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

his heart from the world, and inspiring it with 
new love to the Saviour. His day -dreams are 
now broken up. Have I been so thoughtless, 
he exclaims, so unthankful, and so neglectful of 
my duties to my fellow-men and to God ? Is the 
time remaining so short, and shall I spend it in 
selfish ease and in seeking personal gratifica- 
tions? Did Christ die for the world, — has he 
redeemed me with his precious blood, and shall 
I do nothing to save souls from death ? Oh God, 
forgive my cruel indifference, and gird me again 
for thy service ! 

It is by impressions received at such times, 
that many Christians are fitted for great useful 
ness. Repeated sicknesses, bringing eternal re- 
alities near, contributed more than any other cir- 
cumstance to make Pascal, and Baxter, and 
Boyle, and Doddridge, and others who might be 
named, some of the most useful men the world 
has ever seen. Living upon the borders of an- 
other world, they imbibed much of the spirit of 
heaven, and were incited to labor for Christ 
assiduously, feeling that each effort might be 
their last. 

The example of Christians, too, in seasons of 
trial, is often greatly useful. They then show 



USES OF AFFLICTION. ZO 

that the j can suffer God's will, as well as ac- 
tively 'perform it. And the spirit with* which 
they endure afflictions, — their cheerful submis- 
sion, patience, hope and unwavering faith recom- 
mend religion, and make it influential in the 
world, no less, perhaps, than the zeal and labors 
of others. Beholding such an impressive exhi- 
bition of the power of religion, many an infidel 
has been convinced of the truth of Christianity, 
thoughtless men have been made serious, and 
weak and fearful Christians have been strength- 
ened and encouraged. 

Afflictions are adapted, also, to promote the- 
inward piety of the Christian. They lead him 
amine himself, to see whether he has really 
horn again. They develop the secrets of 
his heart, its sinfulness, its weaknesses and its 
want-, and its utter and constant dependence on^ 
tin- grace of God. They tend to convince hint 
of the insufficiency of all earthly good; that it 
is an uncertain portion, and at best is wholly in- 
competent to meet the wants of the soul. They 
lead him to renounce the world, as an object of 
supreme regard, and to choose God as his all- 
sufficient portion. 

They excite to the cultivation of some of the 
J} 



20 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

""most important Christian graces. In the midst 
of prosperity, there is very little opportunity or 
demand for the exercise of submission. Some 
disappointment must be experienced, some dar- 
ling object must be torn away, before we can 
learn that cheerful resignation, that unquestion- 
ing submission, which God requires. 

Tribulation worketh patience, also. Did not 
some form of affliction enter into the Christian's 
experience, how would it be possible for this 
grace to exist ? 

" Afflictions promote, also, the exercise of faith. 
When the dispensations of Providence accord 
with our wishes, or the reason of them is clearly 
seen, there is little demand for the cultivation 
of this grace. But, let the Christian be disap- 
pointed in his hopes and plans, be reduced to 
poverty, forsaken by his friends, brought low 
with sickness, bereaved of his kindred, and above 
all, be made to suffer the hidings of God's coun- 
tenance, — then, there is need of the strongest 
faith. Let his afflictions come, as sometimes 
they do, shrouded in impenetrable darkness, 
compelling him to trust in the Lord — if trust he 
can — though he may not see a single reason for 
his faith except that God is on the throne, and 



USES OF AFFLICTION. 27 

will do unto him nothing but what is right and 
for his good, — faith alone will enable him to 
bear up under such trials ; and such a faith, 
strange though it may appear, these very trials 
are adapted to excite and strengthen. They 
compel him to cast himself upon God alone, and 
he finds Him a " refuge and strength, a very 
present help in trouble." 

The great apostle was afflicted with a " thorn 
in the flesh," which he prayed might be removed. 
God did not grant his request, but made his trial 
the means of his spiritual good. Bear the thorn ! 
and my grace shall support you. Bear the 
thorn ! and it shall subdue your pride ; it shall 
teach you lessons of submission, and patience, 
and faith : it shall promote your usefulness 
among men, and your preparation for glory. 
Paul bore the thorn ; and could we now ask him, 
from his radiant throne, he would tell us that he 
counted that trial among the greatest of his 
blessings. "The cutting and irritating grain of 
sand, which by accident or incaution has got 
within the shell, incites the living inmate to se- 
crete from its own resources the means of coat- 
ing the intrusive substance. And is it not, or 
may it not be so with even the irregularities and 



28 thoughts for the afflicted. 

unevenness of health aud fortune in our own 
-case? We, too, may turn diseases into pearls." 
Finally, it is worthy of more distinct remark, 
that afflictions tend to wean the Christian from the 
world, and to prepare him for heaven. When he 
is borne down by trials, how poor and insignifi- 
cant do all earthly things appear ! Honors, riches, 
pleasures are felt to be of little importance, while 
an interest in the hopes and promises of the 
gospel is regarded as the only substantial good, — 
yea, to be of more value than worlds. Afflic- 
tions raise the believer's thoughts above earthly 
things, and make them familiar with the things 
of eternity. His heart and his conversation 
look towards heaven. He often wonders that 
he was so long contented to grovel amid the 
vanities of the world, comparatively regardless 
of the joy and the glory of the life to come; 
and he thanks God for the afflictions which have 
been so blessed to his spiritual good. As he 
goes through the world, his demeanor becomes 
more and more that of a pilgrim and a stranger, 
plainly declaring to all who behold him that he 
seeks a better country, even an heavenly. He 
looks not upon the things which are seen and 
temporal, for his thoughts are engrossed with 



USES OF AFFLICTION. 29 

those transcendantly important things which are 
unseen and eternal. 

And now, if such are some of the uses of af- 
fliction, shall we not thank God for it ? It does 
not fall upon us by accident, nor is it sent in 
wrath ; but by design, and in mercy, for our 
good. It is "a messenger sent out from God's-"'" 
presence, to call us toward his throne." It is an 
important part of his great, eternal plan, adapted 
with infinite wisdom to our individual necessi- 
ties, designed gradually to disengage our hearts 
from the world, to mold our spirits into con- 
formity with his own, and to train us up for his 
service and for his heavenly kingdom. Let us, 
tlun, gladly co-operate with him in this great 
and glorious design. Far from us, be despond- 
ency or murmuring ! Far from us, be hardness 
of heart, an insensibility to the teachings of his 
providence, or a spirit that would pervert and 
all use his gracious discipline. Let us be more 
desirous to profit by our afflictions, than to be 
delivered from them. Let resignation, a peace- 
ful serenity, an undoubting trust, a joyful hope, 
ever dwell within us. All things shall work to- 
gether for good, to them that love God. Noth- 
ing shall be able to separate us from the love of 



30 THOUGHTS FOK THE AFFLICTED. 

God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. AVhen 
He who is our life shall appear, then shall we 
also appear with him in glory. 

"For what shall I praise thee, my God and my King? 

For what blessings the tribute of gratitude bring ? 

Shall I praise thee for pleasure, for health, or for ease ? 

For the sunshine of youth, for the garden of peace? 

Shall I praise thee for flowers that bloomed on my breast f 

For joys in perspective, and pleasures possessed? 

For the spirits that brightened my days of delight ? 

For the slumbers that sat on my pillow by night ? 

For this I would thank thee ; but if only for this, 

I should leave half untold the donation of bliss: 

I thank thee for sickness, for sorrow, for care, 

For the thorns I have gathered, the anguish I share, 

For nights of anxiety, watchings, and tears, 

A present of pain, a perspective of feai's: 

I thank thee, I bless thee, my King and my God, 

For the good and the evil thy hand hath bestowed — 

The flowers were sweet, but their fragrance is flown, 

They yielded no fruit, they are withered and gonel 

The thorn, it was poignant, but precious to me, 

'Twas the message of mercy, it led me to Thee." 



THE ABUSE OF AFFLICTIONS. 



Nothing is more certain than that afflictions 
are designed for man's good. God has given us 
plain and abundant assurances of this in his word. 
The happy results of afflictions also, in many- 
cases, show their beneficent tendency. Much 
of the beautiful and the good in human charac- 
ter is the fruit of afflictions. Many a soul has been 
saved by their instrumentality ; many a Christian 
has been reclaimed by them, has been quickened 
in duty, established in a life of usefulness, and pre- 
pared for a peaceful and happy death. And yet, 
it is lamentably true, that many persons misim- 
prove God's gracious discipline, and so fail to de- 
ri ve benefit from it. Their hearts become harden- 
ed, their wills stubborn and rebellious, and their 
prospects of final salvation become greatly obscu- 
red. This is both their crime and their calamity. 
By abusing the means which God designed for 
their spiritual good, they become more sinful, and 
their condition is rendered more hopeless. 



64 THOUGH'IS FOK THE AFFLICTED. 

Of such misimproveinent of afflictions, we 
have seen many examples. A was thought- 
less, and unreflecting. Amiable and exemplary 

in his relations to men, he yet almost wholly dis- 
regarded his relations and duties to God. God's 
law, and word,and providence, and grace seem- 
ed rarely to occupy his thoughts. An overruling 
providence, especially, was seldom recognized. 
He did not stop to look beyond second causes, 
did not see his Maker's hand in His works of na- 
ture, or in the various events of human life. 
Strange as it may appear, the very medium which 
God employed to lead his thoughts heavenward, 
was converted into a barrier between him and 
God. Did he enj oy prosperity ? He blessed the 
winds and waves and his own wisdom. Was 
he brought low with sickness ? It was merely a 
sudden change of weather, or some accident that 
caused the disease. Was his property swept 
away ? Oh, it was attributable solely to his ill 
luck or carelessness, or to the injustice of others! 
Was he bereaved of friends ? it was a sad loss, 
surely; but they had violated some canon of 
health, or it was a thing which could not be helped, 
— it was paying the debt of nature ! Thus he 
was a practical Atheist, And as he die not rec- 



Tnii ABUSE OF AFFLICTIONS. 66 

ognize a divine Hand appointing and controlling 
all events for some wise end, so lie was not affect- 
ed and profited by those events. Oh ! how it 
would have changed the aspect of the world, 
could he have seen a God upon the throne, su- 
perintending all creatures and all their concerns, 
and in his various dealings with them, seeking 
only their good.* 

Moreover, and as a result of this, he failed to 
observe the design of God in his providence. 
The evils of life, especially, were regarded as so 
many calamities falling upon him by chance, and 
as serving no end except to subtract so much 
from the sum of his happiness. He did not see 

* "The idea of laws of nature, omnipotent, irreversible, 
crushing, — of a system in the main beneficent, which yet 
has its hard cases and its victims, — weighs down the spirit 
n- with an iron hand. In connection with this idea, there 
always comes up the torturing question, — 'Could not the issue 
that lias taken place have been foreseen and averted, had 
we been more watchful and more wise? ' . . . The only 
conception which can satisfy the deep want of the soul in j 
Borrow is that of an impartial, all-merciful Providence, under 
whose administration there is no wanton infliction, no aim- 
less suffering, do evenl which il is aol best for us to meet and 
bear. We aeed thai faith in God which shall refer the trial 
to no second cause, to the uncontrolled working of no mate- 
rial law, bul solely to the merciful purpose of One who wounds 
but to lieal, whose very rod comforts while it chastens." — 
A. P. Peaboi>y. 

B« 3 



34 THOUGHTS FOB THE AFFLICTED. 

that they were sent from God, and were intend- 
ed for his good. He was not humbled by them, 
nor made thoughtful and penitent. He wonder- 
ed why such woes should befal him; why his 
hopes should be blasted, his plans crossed, and 
his life made miserable. His Christian friends 
endeavored to arouse him from this moral stu- 
pidity ; tried to impress him with thoughts of a 
God, and a Providence that numbered the hairs 
of his head, and noted the falling of the sparrow ; 
that watched over him continually, mingling 
mercies and afflictions as his case required, and 
in all His dispensations governed by infinite 
wisdom and love. Alas ! the inconsiderate man 
remained unmoved by their counsels. In his 
trials, he did not " hear the rod and Him who 
had appointed it," and of course, derived no ben- 
efit from the discipline. 

B was a cold, philosophical spirit. He 

was seldom excited on any subject or occasion. 
In the ordinary affairs of life, he maintained a 
cool composure, placidly smiling at the agita- 
tions of other men. And when contemplating 
the truths of religion, the most solemn and stirring 
considerations — the motives of heaven and hell, 
and eternity, and the love of Christ, failed to pro- 



THE ABUSE OF AFFLICTIONS. 85 

duce in him any adequate emotions of love or fear, 
or penitence. The frequent warnings of death, 
the blessings and trials of life, all alike seemed 
powerless to break up his insensibility. He ac- 
knowledged the truth of the leading doctrines 
of religion, but allowed them no practical influ- 
ence upon his heart and life. And so, when 
personally afflicted, though he knew full well 
that it was the voice of God addressed to him,- 
and deserving his regard, he gave it no serious 
attention. His feelings were those of the mere 
philosopher, and he reasoned thus : Sufferings are 
the common lot of man, and it is useless to com- 
plain. It is noble, it is wise to bear our troubles 
with patience and fortitude. Submit we must, 
at any rate, and it is best to do so gracefully, and 
not by compulsion and with repining. 

Now, of course, the indulgence of such a spirit 
rendered his afflictions useless. God designed 
that he should be afflected by them, that his soul 
should be deeply stirred and agitated, and that he 
should find no peace until he found it in recon- 
ciliation to his Maker, and in devotion to his 
service. 

But he purposely opposed this merciful design, 
and consequently reaped no benefit from the 



36" THOUGHTS FOR THIS iFFLIOTEI), 

discipline. Nay, his heart was hardened by it, 
and the probabilities of his salvation were great- 
ly diminished. 

C was proud and rebellions. He believed 

that God ruled overall his creatures, but he did 
not love to acknowledge his authority. He was 
willing to obey the divine commands so far as 
they d>'d not cross his inclinations, and he was 
happy so long as God blessed him with prosper- 
ity ; but whenever his will was opposed, or his 
desires could not be gratified, he braced himself 
up in defiance of his Maker. He thought his 
trials wholly undeserved, and laid upon him by 
the hand of a tyrant. Restive under his troub- 
les, discontented, unhappy, he envied the lot 
of others, and inwardly charged God with par- 
tiality and injustice. A willing submission to 
his trials he refused to yield, and if he bowed at 
all, it was in dogged silence, and solely because 
he could not help it. O could he have looked 
up to God as a Father, who does not willingly 
grieve the children of men ; could he have yield- 
ed to the wise and tender discipline of that Fa- 
ther's hand, how blessed would have been the 
result! Had he acknowledged his sins, and 
humbled himself at the Saviour's feet, hisafflic- 



TUK ABUSE OF AFFLICTIONS. 6i 

tions would have worked for him the peaceable 
fruits of righteousness. And from the depths 
of his heart, he would have thanked God for all 
the discipline of his hand. 

When trials are thus abused, the good which 
God designed to convey by them is lost. Was 
it an admonition to the wandering desciple of 
Christ ? He then continues to wander, and pier- 
ces his soul through with many sorrows. Was it 
a warning to the sinner ? He then goes on, heed- 
less, placing himself at a greater remove from 
God and from salvation. To lose a gift when / 
God designs to be the Giver, is a loss indeed ! 

If one affliction is misimproved, God some- 
times sends heavier chastisements. He sends 
them in mercy still, but they cost the sinner great- 
er suffering. Stroke often follows stroke, riches 
are lost, reputation is blasted, friends, kindred 
die, all that makes life most desirable seems about 
ig away, until at length it may be, God sees 
that the end of discipline is answered, and says, 
It is enough. Oh, how mtich better for man to 
listen t<> the lirst admonition, and to be restored 
at once to ( rod's favor ! 

But when trials have been sent repeatedly, and 
in vain, God then often withholds them alto&eth- 



THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

eaves the sinner to himself. 
x ^no mercy in this. The man is joined to his idols, 
and God lets him alone. He congratulates him- 
self, perhaps, on his exemption from trouble, and 
thinks the remainder of his life will be a contin- 
ual round of enjoyment. Alas ! how little oc- 
casion has he for rejoicing. If God has left him 
to pursue his own course, his condition is hope- 
less. No heavier judgment could be laid upon 
him. It is the calm before a storm. " Nothing 
can be more fatal to the sinner ; it is a freedom 
to sin ; it is the removal of hindrances out of the 
way of perdition ; and thus giving the unhappy 
wretch an unchecked passage in his career of folly 
and disobedience, so that he goes on undisturb- 
ed in his iniquity, every day increasing his en- 
mity against God, and increasing God's enmity 
against him ; treasuring up wrath against the 
day of wrath." He is the dupe of his own de- 
ceitful heart, and is sure to be ensnared by the 
devil and led captive at his will, down to the re- 
gions of everlasting death. 

A season of affliction is a most important and 
-critical period. God is then peculiarly near to 
man ; is dealing with him directly and person- 
ally ; taking him, so to speak, into his own hands 



THE ABUSE OF AFFLICTIONS. 39 

to confer upon him some special benefit. If he 
listen to God's voice, his trials will work out hap- 
py results. If, through thoughtlessness, or insen- 
sibility, or a spirit of rebellion, or in any other 
way, he misimproves his afflictions, they will 
work out for him evil and only evil. 

Keep thy heart with all diligence, while under 
affliction. To wish thy trials removed at all haz- 
ards, is highly presumptuous and dangerous. 
Acknowledge the hand of God. Humble thyself 
at his feet, and confide in his wisdom. Art thou 
a disciple of Christ ? Let thine afflictions make 
thee a better disciple. "Welcome whatever means 
the Saviour may employ to bring thee nearer to 
himself, and to aid thee in preparing for heaven. 
Art thou an enemy to Christ? Oh, listen to 
these faithful warnings ! The trials thou dost 
Buffer prove that he has not yet abandoned thee. 
Now, is the accepted time, and the day of sal- 
vation. 



COMFORT IK AFFLICTION. 



Though afflictions are the lot of all men, the 
child of God has supports under his trials to 
which other men are practical strangers. He 
need not school his heart into a state of insensi- 
bility, nor try to escape from sorrow "by fleeing 
to the desert, or by plunging into a tide of busi- 
ness, or pleasure, or vice. No : for he has 
every consolation which reason can suggest; 
and, superadded to these and more than all com- 
bined, he has those comforts which arise from 
his relation to God, and heaven, and eternity. 
Let us consider some of them. 

If it does not afford him positive comfort, it 
serves at least to restrain his grief to reflect that 
as a sinner he justly merits his sufferings. He 
regards sin as the cause of all the disorder and 
misery in the world. He feels that he is him- 
self a sinner, and has ever been such ; that he 
has trampled upon God's law, despised the love 
of the Saviour, steeled his heart against the in- 



CGMFO&T IS AFSluLdTioTS. -Al 

fluences of the Spirit, requited the gifts of Prov- 
idence with ingratitude ; and that all these sins 
have been aggravated by the frequency with 
which they have been committed. What a 
fountain of iniquity does he find within him! 
Now, when he reflects upon these things, he 
does not wonder that God should afflict him. 
" Shall a living man complain, a man for the 
punishment of his sins?" Nay, he feels that 
he deserves all that is sent upon him, and thanks 
God that his chastisement is not more severe. 
Such an habitual and dee}) impression of the 
vileness and ill-desert of sin humbles him, calms 
the turbulence of his sorrow, and prepares him 
t<> receive the more positive consolations of the 
gospel. 

In searching for such consolations, one of the 
l ttd most pleasing thoughts which arises in 
his mind, is that iiis afflictions are appointed by 
Fatherly wisdom and love. Such Scriptures as 
these occur 1" his memory: " Affliction cometh 
not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring 
out of the ground." " "Whom the Lord loveth 
In- chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom 
lie receiveth*" Much as he deserves punish- 
ment tor his -.ins, he does notlook upon his trials 



42 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

as sent by a vindictive tyrant, but rather as fa- 
therly discipline, adapted to his wants, and ap- 
plied with the tenderest compassion. An earthly 
-^parent may correct his child from passion or 
caprice, but He chastens us for our profit, that 
we may become partakers of h'is holiness. An 
earthly parent, from mistaken tenderness or in- 
dolence, may suffer his child to grow up unre- 
strained, and to become profligate and vicious ; 
but His love for his children is too wise, as well 
as too strong, to leave them without the disci- 
pline necessary for their good. He is perfectly 
acquainted with all their circumstances, their 
condition, age, infirmities and temptations, and 
knows just what kind of trial is most needful 
for them, and at what time, and in what way it 
may best be sent upon them. They may not 
be able at the time of their affliction, to see 
clearly the reason for it, — because they have but 
-an imperfect idea of their ill-desert, and cannot 
comprehend God's plans ; but of this, faith as- 
sures them that he is too wise to err, either as to 
the time, the place, the nature, or the continu- 
ance of their trials ; and is too merciful, wantonly 
to injure them. " Like as a father pitieth his 
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." 



COMFOET IN AFFLICTION. 43 

Moreover, in his trials the believer is enabled 
to realize, in a peculiar degree, the truth and 
value of the promises of the gospel. He goes 
to the Bible for instruction and comfort, and 
is surprised to find so large a portion of that 
book addressed to the aniicted. On almost ev- 
ery page shines forth some promise expressing 
God's grace and bounty to his children in what- 
soever circumstances they may be placed. 

Is he oppressed with the burden of his sins ? 
He finds the cheering assurance : " If we confess 
our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us 
our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteous- 
ness." 

Does his weakness discourage him? He is 
strengthened by the promise : " Fear thou not, 
for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am 
thy God." 

Is he terrified by approaching calamities? 
" Call upon me," says God, " in the day of trou- 
ble : I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify 
me." " Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace 
whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trust- 
eth in thee." 

Is he bereaved of kindred and friends? "I 
will not leave you comfortless : I will come to 



44 THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

you." "Leave thy fatherless children, I will 
preserve them alive, and let thy widows trust in 
me." " As thy days, so shall thy strength be." 

Is he in sickness? "The Lord will strengthen 
him npon the bed of languishing : thou wilt 
make all his bed in his sickness." 

Is he in poverty? " Trust in the Lord and do 
good ; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and ver- 
ily thou shalt be fed." 

Is he aged and infirm ? " Even to your old 
age, I am he, and even to hoary hairs I will 
carry you." " They that wait upon the Lord 
shall renew their strength ; they shall mount up 
with wings as eagles: they shall run and not be 
weary; and they shall walk and not faint." 

And so, whatever may be the condition and 
wants of the Christian, God has provided the 
support of some precious promise. He uttered 
these promises at the first, expressly for his chil- 
dren, and he caused them to be recorded and 
preserved for the comfort of all who should put 
their trust in him to the end of time. It is as 
though He himself were standing by the side 
of the fainting Christian, and breathing into his 
ear the consolations which his case requires. 
Tlesting upon these promises, the believer finds 



COMFORT IN AFFLICTION. 45 

that they who trust in the Lord, are like Ivlount 
Zion, which cannot be moved. 

There are several comparative views of trials 
which serve to console the afflicted. For exam- 
ple : pur trials are small in number and import- 
ance, compared with our blessings. Days, 
months, years, we have already spent in health 
and ease. We have enjoyed the comforts of 
home and the delights of friendship ; have been 
surrounded with facilities for intellectual cul- 
ture ; and above all, our lot has been brightened 
with the hopes of the gospel. In comparison 
with these things, how insignificant our trials! 

Consider, too, what other men have suffered. 
Patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs were 
Bcourged, imprisoned, stoned, sawn asunder, 
° being destitute, afflicted, tormented: they wan- 
dered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens 
and eaves of the earth." The history of the 
church in every age shows that the people of 
&od have never found a peaceful by-path to 
heaven, it was " through much tribulation that 
they entered into the kingdom of God." What 
are out trials in comparison with theirs ! 

Contemplate, above all, the sufferings of 
Christ. In condescending to assume our nature, 



46 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

he gave up the joys of heaven for a life of pov- 
erty, reproach and suffering. He was, beyond 
all our conceptions, " a man of sorrows and ac- 
quainted with grief." Read his life, trace his 
path from the manger to the cross, and you will 
find little that could have given him comfort : 
you will almost credit the tradition which says 
that he was never known to smile. And then, the 
last, great agony,— with what language shall we 
speak of that ! And oh, who can esteem his 
trials severe, in comparison with Christ's suffer- 



to the afflicted Christian ; namely, the presence 
of Christ. The believer regards Christ in the 
character of an atoning Saviour as the founda- 
tion of all his hopes, — Christ as Redeemer, bear- 
ing the sins of men in his own body on the tree, 
justifying the ungodly who believe, — 'Christ in- 
terceding in heaven, and Christ as his example, 
is the object of his devout affection, and the 
chief ground of his comfort. "Were he unable 
to look to the cross, and see that his sins were 
pardoned and that God was reconciled, all other 
consolations would be worthless. But there he 
beholds a firm foundation for the guilty to rest 



COMFORT EST AFFLICTION - . 47 

upon, and there he reposes all his hopes. His 
fears are dissipated, God is his friend and por- 
tion, and heaven is his eternal home.* 

But in addition to this view of Christ, — a view 
which gives their chief value to all other reli- 
gious supports — in addition to the sense of par- 
don and security resulting from faith in the Ke- 
deemer, there is peculiar support and comfort 
derived from the actual presence of Christ with 
the afflicted believer. Shortly before his death, 
he said to his sorrowing disciples : " I will not 
leave you comfortless ; I will come to you. I 
will manifest myself unto you, will make my 
abode with you, will dwell within you." These 
and similar expressions have an important and 
precious meaning. They show that Christ is 

* "Is the hope of eternal life such a trifle as to be un- 
worthy of, or unfit for, a song of praise, 'whenever any of 
the comforts of this life are taken away? What a poor hold 
of it we must have, if we can forget it in the day of calam- 
ity ! Whal a low estimate we have formed of it, if it can be 
insipid whenever we are put out of the way by temporal 
tilings ! I do not think lightly of cares or crosses, vexatious 
or grievances, — they are hard to bear; but what are they 
compared with the wrath and curse of God, or with the ago- 
nies of despair ? Any lot, out of hell, demands and deserves 
our fervent gratitude; and, where the hope of heaven is left 
in the bosom, no earthly loss can excuse silence." — Robt. 

PuiLIP. 



48 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

never absent from those tliat love him. He is 
at their side by day and night, at home and 
abroad, in prosperity and adversity, in life and 
in death. He is not ashamed to call them breth- 
ren. He is touched with a feeling of their infir- 
mities. Oh, how comforting to know that while 
he reigns in heaven, he at the same time dwells 
on earth with every believer ! We may not be 
conscious, at all times, of his presence. Like 
the disciples on the sea of Galilee, in a storm by 
night, we may suppose that our Saviour is far 
from us, and may begin to fear that we shall be 
overwhelmed ; but soon, like them, we shall dis- 
cover him nigh at hand, his very presence still- 
ing the tempest and dispelling our fears. He 
now feels the same tenderness and sympathy for 
his children which once prompted him to heal 
the sick, to give sight to the blind, comfort to 
mourners, and life to the dead. Aye, the same 
compassion which he felt for the sisters of dying 
Lazarus, sympathizing with us in the trials which 
he has the power to avert, but which he sees it 
necessary for us to suffer ! 

If thou, my Jesus, still art nigh, 
Cheerful I live, and cheerful die; 
Secure, when mortal comforts flee, 
To find ten thousand worlds in thee. 



COMFOKT IN AFFLICTION. 49 

It is another source of comfort to reflect that 
our afflictions are of short continuance, and will 
terminate in heaven. God's enemies have no 
such cheering reversion. Be life as joyous as 
it may to them, it is short, and at the end their 
hopes are blasted, and woe unmitigated and 
eternal becomes their portion. Not so with the 
believer. Manifold mercies are mingled with 
his afflictions, and his trials, at the longest, are 
but for a moment, while they work out for him 
a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glo- 
ry. An eternal weight of glory ! Happiness 
unalloyed, increasing, inconceivable, eternal, — 
this, this lies before him as the glorious consum- 
mation and crown of his life ! How abundant 
the comfort flowing from this promised recom- 
pense of reward ! If the night be dark he knows 
that morning will soon dawn, and will usher in 
a glorious day. Oh, that day, that blissful, end- 
less day ! That enduring substance, that better 
country, the glory of all lands, that building of 
God eternal in the heavens, that harp of gold, 
that crown of life, that unfading inheritance ! 
Oh, who can think of these things without find- 
in-- comfort in his sorrows, and even rejoicing in 
hope of the glory of God ! 

C 4 



50 THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

If such and so many comforts are provided 
for the believer in affliction, how exalted his 
privilege ! The gift of an atoning Saviour were 
enough to call forth his warmest gratitude, and 
to fill him with joy, even though his life were 
one scene of unmitigated suifering. But God's 
love has comprehended both his happiness here 
and his salvation hereafter. 

And if so, should not the Christian gratefully 
receive and enjoy those comforts? Professed 
believers there are, who flee from their sorrows 
to scenes of amusement, to gay companions, to 
the exciting romance, to anything which prom- 
ises to engross their thoughts, and to help them 
forget their trials, instead of coming to Christ 
their almighty Friend, and finding support in 
the hopes and promises of the gospel. In en- 
deavoring thus to satisfy themselves with the 
poor comforts which sinners possess, they both 
impoverish their own souls, and pour contempt 
on the gracious, abundant, and satisfying conso- 
lations which Christ has provided expressly for 
them. This is the Prodigal feeding on husks, 
when there is bread enough in his father's house, 
and to spare. Oh, let us be sensible of our high 
privileges ! Let us walk as children of the light 



COMFORT IN AFFLICTION. 51 

and of the day. " Lord, to whom else shall we 
go, but unto thee ? Thou hast the words of eter- 
nal life." 

" Of all thy gifts, thou art thyself the best ; 
Give what thou canst, without thee we are poor, 
And with thee rich, take what thou wilt away." 

Let us ever rejoice in Christ as our Saviour 
and all-sufficient portion. Let us pass through 
life undismayed by its trials, actively doing 
God's will, or patiently suffering it, just as he 
shall appoint, finding our supreme good in Him 
whom having not seen we love, in whom believ- 
ing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full 
of glory. " Blessed is that servant whom his 
Lord when he cometh shall find so doing ! " 



ALL THINGS GIVEN US WITH CHRIST. 



Herein appears the great privilege of the 
Christian. Since God has redeemed us by the 
death of his Son, we have the assurance that he 
will give us everything else needful for our pres- 
ent and future welfare. Contemplation of this 
truth often kindled the feelings of the great Apos- 
tle. Writing to the disciples at Rome, he ex- 
claims : " He that spared not his own Son, but 
delivered him up for us all, how shall he not 
with him also freely give us all things." And 
in his first letter to the Corinthian church : " All 
things are yours ; whether Paul, or Apollos, or 
Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things 
present, or things to come, all are yours, and ye 
are Christ's, and Christ is God's." "What a pro- 
prietor, then, is the Christian ! Language seems 
too weak for the apostle adequately to express 
his view of the wealth of the beliver's privileges. 

Let us pause a few moments, and meditate 
upon this delightful truth. God so loved the 



ALL THINGS GIVEN US WITH CHRIST. 53 

world that he gave his only begotten Son to die, 
that whosoever believeth in him might be saved. 
The humiliation and sufferings of that Son, no 
finite mind can conceive. What a Giver, and 
what a Gift ! Eternity will be too short to en- 
able us to comprehend this wonderful mystery. 
But if God has given us his Son, — the greatest 
conceivable benefaction — we may rest assured 
that he will bestow all other things needful for 
us, in time and in eternity. He does bestow 
them : " All things are yours," says the Apostle. 
"Tlje world is yours," he says ; and so it is, most 
truly, and in a wide acceptation. The faculties 
of our bodies and minds, our health and homes, 
and friends ; in short, every earthly good comes 
to us in consequence of the gift of a Saviour, 
and might very appropriately be inscribed: 
u Given i < with Cueist." The material universe 
belongs to the Christian. 

"His are the mountains, and the valleys his, 
And the resplendent rivers. His t'enjoy, 
With a propriety which none can feel 
But who with filial confidence inspired, 
Can smiling say, 'My Father made them all.' " 



stars, the seasons, the earth, the winds and waves ; 



54: THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

for God made them all for the use and enjoy- 
ment of bis children on their way to glory. As 
a child, in walking through the apartments of 
his father's house, or over his domain, feels that 
he is at home there, and may freely use and en- 
joy everything about him necessary for his good, 
so the child of God, in passing through this world, 
is but walking over a part of his Father's do- 
main, and may freely use everything conducive 
to his real welfare. 

It is not required of him, nor is it honorable 
to his religious profession, that he go through 
the world with downcast eye and mournful 
tongue, shunning the society of men, and deny- 
ing himself the innocent enjoyments of life, as 
though they were things forbidden, and necessa- 
rily injurious to his spiritual well-being. All 
that is truly good on earth, God has given his 
children richly to enjoy. Not to misuse, certain- 
ly, and pervert to unworthy ends, but still, to use 
and to enjoy. We can, and we ought, to recog- 
nize God's hand in all our worldly blessings; and, 
instead of fastening our hearts upon them inor- 
dinately, should make them suggestive of great- 
er and better things to come. In the midst of 
our social and domestic joys we may be led to 



ALL THINGS GIVEN US WITH CHRIST. 55 

think of the friendship of heaven, compared with, 
which all earthly attachments scarce deserve the 
name. Beautiful objects in nature may lead us 
to reflect, that in the u new heavens " there shall 
be nothing to offend, — every object on which 
the eye rests shall be perfect, When music de- 
lights us, we may reflect that in the " new song " 
not a discordant note will be heard, but that its 
strains will be as harmonious and soul enraptur- 
ing as its theme is elevated and glorious. Yea, 
everything in which the soul takes a rational 
delight, instead of attaching us unduly to this 
world, may point us forward, to nobler, better 
things reserved for us in the new heavens and 
the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 
This honor have all the saints! 

There are spiritual blessings also procured for 
us, in addition to the gift of Christ as a Media- 
tor. For example : believers are not only justi- 
fied through him, but may likewise receive the 
spirit of adoption in their hearts, whereby they 
'tv. A-bba, Father. They may know that if they 
are sons, then are they heirs, heirs of God, and 
joint-heirs with Christ to an inheritance that is 
incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not 
away. Provision is made also for the believer's 



56 THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

sanctification, — for his deliverance from the do- 
minion, and corruption of sin, as well as from its 
punishment. " The path of the just is as the 
shining light, that shineth more and more unto 
the perfect day." He may also attain to a high 
degree of Christian assurance. Instead of liv- 
ing in continual doubts and fears, his hope may 
be an anchor to his soul, sure and steadfast. He 
may know that nothing shall be able to separate 
him from the love of Christ, and that there is 
laid up for him a crown of righteousness. 

These, and other spiritual blessings are inclu- 
ded in the gift of Christ as an atoning Saviour. 
They are pr&vided for all Christians, and may be 
enjoyed by all. If any live without them, it is 
because chey are unmindful both of their duty 
and their privilege. As one has said: "They 
remain in what the old divines used to call a 
' legal state,' in opposition to the exercise of a 
full, evangelical faith. They linger in the sev- 
enth chapter of Eomans, instead of passing over 
into the eighth, in their own experience. By faith 
they might cross this gulf, and so give up to 
Christ their sins, their sorrows, their weakness, 
their evil hearts, their enemies and their fears ; 
and take in their stead, him and his sacrifice, his 



ALL THINGS GIVEN TJS WITH CHRIST. 57 

righteousness and power, his mediation and vic- 
tories." 

"We have thus far considered the temporal and 
spiritual blessings bestowed upon believers in 
connexion with the gift of Christ. But Christ- 
ians are called to suffer trials. And have these 
any connexion with the gift of a Saviour ? Most 
assuredly ; and as much so as those dispensations 
of Providence commonly styled mercies. Such 
mercies are sometimes denied the believer, be- 
cause God sees that in his case and circumstan- 
ces, they would not te mercies. He bestows 
something better : bestows what upon its face is 
an affliction, but accompanies it with this cheer- 
ing explanatory message : " All things shall work 
together for good to them that love God." He 
sends trials in various forms, that he may effec- 
tually wran his children from an idolatrous love 
of tire world, and draw their hearts heavenward. 
And as a matter of experience, such discipline 
doos tend to produce in them the best graces 
of the Christan character : it purines their hearts, 
strengthens their faith, and leads them to seek 
their supreme good in God. Thus they are made 
to see that afflictions come from the same Hand 
which provided for them a Saviour, and are, if 
C* 



58 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

we may so speak, an important supplement to 
the great gift of Christ as a Redeemer. 

But over and above all these earthly ills, there 
is that of Death. And has God given us this 
with Christ ? No ! no ! cries Nature, shrinking 
with affright from the great Destroyer. Yes! 
even this ! says the grace of God in the believer's 
heart. The Apostle declares : " The world, or 
life, or death, all are yours." Death is the 
- Christian's teacher. Its frequent appearance on 
every side serves to deepen his impressions of 
the reality of a future state, and of his probable 
nearness to eternity ; inspires him with sober and 
just views of life ; makes him humble, thought- 
ful, prayerful. It incites him to activity in every 
good work, while the day lasts ; it teaches him, 
more than any other instructor, the insufficiency 
of this world as a portion for the soul ; leads him 
to fix his heart chiefly upon those things which 
are imperishable and eternal. Oh ! we are not 
fully sensible how much we owe to the teachings 
of Death. Its solemn presence on every hand, 
is manifestly an important part of God's arrange- 
ments to mold the character of his children for 
usefulness and for heaven. 

But finally, we shall ourselves be summoned 



ALL THINGS GIVEN US WITH CHRIST. 59 

away from life : will death be ours, then ? Tea, 
most assuredly ; for we shall be unhurt by its 
terrors ; it shall be made our friend, our servant, 
to open for us the door of eternity, and let us 
enter the immediate presence of Christ. We 
shall commit our bodies to death's keeping until 
the latter day, when, at the Saviour's command, 
they shall be returned to us, immortal, and glo- 
rified after the likeness of the Lord. " It doth 
not yet appear what we shall be ; but we know 
that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, 
for we shall see him as he is." " I would not 
have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning 
them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even 
as others which have no hope ; for if we believe 
that Jesus died and rose again, even so, them 
also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with 
him." 

Death, then, is not destruction. The soul does 
not enter the grave : there is not a momentary 
suspension of its activity and enjoyment: it thinks 
and feels, and loves, in death and the instant af- 
ter death, as truly as before. Let us, then, not 
think or say that life has been overcome by death, 
but rather, that mortality has been swallowed 
up of life. Death does not, and cannot hurt the 



60 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

Christian ; all it can do is to release him from the 
corruptions of his body, from his toils, his pains, 
his sorrows and his sins. 

One who had a remarkably clear view of spirit- 
ual and eternal things, wrote on a certain occa- 
sion to his friend, thus : "I congratulate you and 
myself that life is passing fast away. "What a 
superlatively grand and consoling idea is that of 
death ! "Without this radiant idea, this delight- 
ful morning-star, indicating that the luminary 
of eternity is going to rise, life would, to my 
view, darken into midnight melancholy. Oh ! 
the expectation of living here, and living thus 
always, would be indeed a prospect of over- 
whelming despair. But, thanks to that decree 
that dooms us to die : thanks to that gospel which 
opens the vista of an endless life, and thanks 
above all to that Saviour-friend who has prom- 
ised to conduct all the faithful through the sacred 
trance of death into scenes of paradise and ever- 
lasting delight." (Foster.) 

Nor is there anything beyond the grave which 
the Christian has reason to fear; — nothing in 
the judgment scene, for the Judge will be Christ 
himself, the believer's Saviour ; nothing after the 
judgment, nor in the long eternity which sue- 



ALL THINGS GIVEN US WITH CHRIST. (U 

ceeds it, for he has the promise that nothing shall 
be able to separate him from the love of God, 
which is in Christ Jesus his Lord. The world, 
life, death, things present and things to come, 
all are his, and he is Christ's, and Christ is God's. 

Oh, what a Gift, and what a Giver! The 
world has witnessed no love like this. So let 
our hearts overflow with gratitude and joy, our 
lips speak forth God's praise, and our lives evince 
the sincerity of our professions. 

God has given us, with Christ, all temporal 
blessings, and offers to us, provides for us, all 
spiritual blessings ; but in a certain sense, it de- 
volves upon us, by an act of our own, to appro- 
priate these blessings to ourselves. Christians 
may, and sometimes do, so live, as to have noth- 
ing but a fluctuating, comfortless hope thattheii 
sins are forgiven ; as to be almost destitute of 
that peace and those joys and consolations which 
God has provided and freely offers to them. But 
ought I, ought you, dear reader, to remain satis- 
fied with this 3 Shall the rich treasures of God's 
grace lie unopened ? Oh, awake to your duty, 
and to the greatness of your privilege ! Make 
full proof of the amplitude and value of the 
provisions of the gospel. Let your soul feast 



62 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

upon them. Enjoy all that God has given yon, 
with the bestowment of his Son. Fear not to 
take immediate possession of your inheritance. 
Go on from one degree of grace unto another, 
until you attain unto the measure of the stature 
of the fulness of Christ. Live above and inde- 
pendently of this world ; or rather, subsidize 
everything in it to the promotion of your happi- 
ness and your spiritual welfare. Hope ever in 
God. Let no trial cast you down. Fear not the 
terrors of death, nor the solemn revelations of 
eternity. There is nothing to feak. All things 
are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is 
God's. 



LESSONS OF SICKNESS, 



My Dear Fkiemd : 

I do most truly sympathise with you in your 
repeated and severe attacks of illness. May 
you be sustained by a divine Helper. It grieves 
me, however, to learn that your mind is so often 
depressed, and that while you can endure other 
trials with patience and submission, you cannot 
discover God's merciful designs in afflicting you 
with sickness. You ask me, as a friend, to give 
jrora my thoughts on this subject. I will do so, 
with tin.- simple hope that it may contribute to 
your comfort. 

Eaa not sickness deeply impressed you with 
the frailty of life, and the uncertainty of human 
hopes ? You knew, very well, beforehand, that 
health and the common blessings of life were 
no certain possession ; and yet, your convictions 
on this subject were not deep and abiding. 
Weakness and pain give many things a new as- 
pect. When we first come forward upon the 



64 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

stage of active life, we are full of hope, confi- 
dent in our ability to execute great schemes, and 
assured that we shall realize our highest antici- 
pations. Others may fail ; others may sicken 
and die, but no such melancholy event can be 
in store for us. Alas ! at this very time, disease 
may be creeping unobserved into our citadel of 
strength, soon to steal away our health and our 
pride, and to teach us a lesson of human frailty 
never to be forgotten. After such experience, 
we feel, as well as know, that " man's days are 
as grass : as a flower of the field, so he flourish- 
eth ; " and that " man at his best estate is alto- 
gether vanity." And if, with recovered health, 
we indulge new hopes and form new plans, it is 
with an abiding conviction that everything fu- 
ture is uncertain, and that all our expectations 
should be qualified with a peradventure. 

And this leads me to observe, still further, that 
sickness discloses to us the vanity and the unsat- 
isfying nature of the things which men most 
highly esteem. It does not teach, it is true, that 
we should withdraw ourselves from the ordinary 
pursuits of life, but it shows the folly of being 
unduly engrossed in them. ISTor does it forbid 
our enjoyment of rational pleasures, but it re- 



LESSONS OF SICKNESS. 65 

veals the vanity of whatever is irrational and 
impure. This thought has been so happily illus- 
trated by the lamented Buckminster, that you 
will thank me for quoting from his j)ages an en- 
tire paragraph : 

" Introduce into the chamber of the sick and' 
dying man, the whole pantheon of idols which 
he has vainly worshipped, — fame, wealth, pleas- 
ure, beauty, power. What miserable comfort- 
ers are they all ! Bind that wreath of laurel 
round his brow, and see if it will assuage his 
aching temples. Spread before him the deeds 
and instruments which prove him the lord of 
innumerable possessions, and see if you can be- 
guile him of a moment's anguish ; see if he will 
not give you up those barren parchments for one 
drop of cool water, one draught of pure air. 
Go, tell him, when a fever rages through his 
veins, that his table smokes with luxuries, and 
that the wine moveth itself aright and giveth 
its color in the cup, and see if this will calm his 
throbbing pulse. Tell him, as he lies prostrate, 
helpless and sinking with debility, that the song 
and dance are ready to begin, and that all with- 
out him is life, alacrity and joy. Nay, mure, 
place in his motionless hand, the sceptre of a 



66 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

mighty empire, and see if he will be eager to 
grasp it. The eye of Caesar could not gain its 
luster by the recollection that its ' bend could 
awe the world,' nor his shaking limbs be quieted 
by remembering that his nod had commanded 
obedience from millions of slaves. This, my 
friends, this is the school in which our desires 
must be disciplined, and our judgment correct- 
ed. The man, who from such dispensations 
learns nothing but perverseness, must be fear- 
fully insensible. Let us, then, remember, that 
every man, at what he supposes his best estate, 
is altogether vanity. God grant that we may 
understand it, before others are called to learn 
it from our graves, or to read it upon our tomb- 
stones." 

Yes, my friend, would that you and I might 
learn to rectify our views of earthly objects, and 
to regard them somewhat as they appear from 
the borders of eternity. Nor is it enough for 
us to see the comparative worthlessness of these 
things : we should learn to lift our thoughts to 
those objects whose importance no time or cir- 
cumstances can diminish. 

You observed, in our last interview, that sick- 
ness was adapted to teach us a lesson of humil- 



LESSORS OF SICKNESS. 67 

ity. Most truly said ! It shows us our weak- 
ness, — a thing we are reluctant to learn. A 
single touch of God's finger has prostrated us : 
another would stop our breath. When we are 
brought to the verge of the grave, — when the 
friends at our bedside look at each other in des- 
pair, and the physician ceases to prescribe, — ■ 
then, if never before, we feel that we are entire- 
ly at God's disposal, and that he alone can help 
us. How poor, how feeble, does man feel him- 
self to be under the stroke of his Maker's hand ! 
And so, if one has vainly exalted himself 
above others, sickness shows him that his body 
is made of the common dust, is subject to the 
same infirmities and pains, and is destined to the 
same corruption. In his health and pride, did 
he seek to live separate from and independent 
of his fellow-men, he now finds himself in need, 
perhaps, of the very ones whom he frowned up- 
on and contemned. He needs them to bring 
him food and medicine, to fan his feverish brow, 
to cool his parched lips, to soothe his pains and 
his fears. Alas, for his independence, it could 
not endure a single throb of pain ! And unless 
he suffers to no purpose, he will rise from his 
bed, (God sparing his life,) more humane, con- 



cs 



THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 



descending and humble. Full as the world is 
of pride, there would be more vain and impious 
displays of it, were it not for the subduing ef- 
fects of sickness. 

Again : is not sickness adapted to heighten 
our estimate of God's mercies ? Take, for ex- 
ample, the blessing of health. It is a common 
saying that no one properly values this until he 
has lost it. Most men trifle with it, vainly sup- 
posing themselves proof against disease, or heed- 
less of the value of what they place in such im- 
minent peril : when, suddenly, the blow falls, 
and shows them what a precious gift they have, 
perhaps irrecoverably, lost. They now learn by 
sad experience that health is a blessing whose 
place nothing can supply, and without which, 
every other good gift is comparatively worthless. 
And if God restores it to them again, and they 
go forth to the pursuits and enjoyments of life, 
oh ! it is with a keener relish and a more grate- 
ful, heartfelt appreciation of this inestimable 
boon. 

Moreover, there are many mercies mingled in 
the cup of sickness. The friends who watch by 
our bedside, or who visit us with expressions of 
sympathy and Christian comfort ; the various 



LESSONS OF SICKNESS. 69 

medicines God has provided for the cure of dis- * 
eases, or the alleviation of suffering; the cup 
of cold water ; peaceful and refreshing sleep af- 
ter seasons of restlessness and pain ; — these and 
other like mercies are received with a more 
grateful sensibility than the thousand blessings 
which had been enjoyed during the period of 
health. And then, if we are raised up from the 
bed of pain, and permitted to walk forth upon 
the earth, to breathe the pure air, to hear the 
melody of birds, to behold the hills and vales, 
the sun and stars ; — tell us, ye who know by 
experience, if the heart does not overflow with 
intenser joy, and a more filial, sincere gratitude 
for these and other common blessings, than was 
ever felt during the thoughtlessness of health 
and prosperity. 

Another thought worthy of mention here is, 
that sickness is adapted to give us a new im- 
pression of the truth and value of religion. We—— 
may at no time have doubted that Christianity 
was from God, and yet never have deeply felt 
it, never had a thorough, experimental evidence 
of its truth. This evidence, such trials as sick-/ 
■en are adapted to furnish us. Withdrawn 
from the cares and allurements of the world, we 



TO THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

*are enabled and disposed to take an impartial 
survey of our lives. And such a survey shows 
us that we have but imperfectly obeyed God's 
law, that sin has tarnished our best services, and 
that, therefore, we have no claim upon the di- 
vine favor. On the ground of law. we cannot 
find a shadow of hope. But here we remember 
that " Christ has become the end of the law for 
righteousness to all who believe." And this is 
just what the sinking soul wants. Condemned 
by the law, and feeling that we are impotent to 
remove or escape from that condemnation, a 
sight of the cross dispels our fears, and inspires 
us with hope. We see that Christ is an all-suffi- 
cient Saviour, and just such a Saviour as we 
need. "We feel that God only could have de- 
vised this plan of salvation, — so wise, so just, 
so merciful — so exactly suited to our case, — we 
feel it, with a certainty to which we had hither- 
to been strangers. 

We prize our religious hopes, also, more high- 
ly than we were wont to do in days of health. 
Lying in our darkened chamber, we reflect that 
the haunts of business and pleasure, and the 
paths to honor are crowded still, though we are 
withdrawn from them : and that, with the ex- 



LESSONS OF SICK3TESS. 71 

ception of a few friends, the world will leave 
us to sicken, and suffer, and die, alone. We 
find, too, that neither stoicism nor philosophy- 
can soothe our fears, or meet the necessities and 
desires of our souls. We feel the need of a 
friend who will never leave or forsake us, of 
consolations such as God only can supply. And 
these we find offered to us in the gospel of Je- 
sus Christ. The gospel of Jesus Christ ! Though 
everything else may fail us, we turn to its pro- 
visions and promises, and our souls are satisfied 
and put at rest, " This is a faithful saying, and 
worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ 
came into the world to save sinners." " Him 
that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." 
" He that spared not his own Son, but delivered 
him up for us all, how shall he not with him 
■lag freely give us all things?" Oh! how pre- 
cious, how inexpressibly valuable, do such prom- 
ises and declarations appear. All that the world 
can give, seems now of no comparative import- 
ance. 

Suffer me to refer to one more lesson of sick- 
ness, namely, that a period of suffering and de- 
cline is a most unfavorable season for making 
preparation for death. It is no trifling thing to 



72 THOUGHTS FOK THE AFFLICTED. 

make such a preparation. The subjects to be 
considered are the most momentous which can 
possibly engage human attention ; and the in- 
terests at stake are greater than finite mind can 
conceive. But he who defers this matter to a time 
of sickness, defers it to what is, ordinarily, the 
most unpropitious moment of his life that could 
be selected. The mind often sympathises with 
the body, and is unable, in the midst of pains, 
and torpor, and delirium, to apply itself suitably 
to the things which concern its everlasting peace. 
At such times, we need to ha/ve in possession 
the comforts and supports of religion, not to be 
goaded by necessity to seek for them. A good 
hope in Jesus Christ may be secured even then ; 
but, as a general ?ule, the piety of sick and dy- 
ing beds is to be distrusted. It lacks the very 
important evidence of fruit. As one has ex- 
pressed it : " Sickness is a discipline which we 
must live to improve ; a medicine whose opera- 
tion cannot be ascertained, if the patient dies in 
the experiment." If it is a hazardous thing to 
put to sea in a vessel hastily built, and that has 
never been tested, it is more perilous to push 
out upon the ocean o.f eternity with " a hope " 
caught up amid the languor and distraction of 



LESSONS OF SICKNESS. 73 

sickness, and with no opportunity to try its gen- 
uineness. If it is a solemn thing to die, with 
the most careful preparation, it is more solemn, 
yea, it is dreadful, to die with such a perhaps as 
to our spiritual state in the sight of God. 

Such, my friend, are some of the more obvi- 
ous lessons of sickness. Others might be men- 
tioned, but your own reflections will suggest 
them. Now, is it hard to see that there is wis- 
dom and mercy in a dispensation which teaches 
such lessons ? If your recent affliction has deep- 
ened your convictions of the frailty of life and 
the uncertainty of human hopes, and the unsat- 
isfactory nature of earthly good, and so led you 
to seek more earnestly for spiritual life, and for 
those things which are of unchanging value ; 
if you have become more humble, more grate- 
ful, and more thoroughly persuaded of the truth 
ami the value of religion ; if it has become your 
heart's desire and prayer to God that your friends 
should come to Christ without delay, — then, 
surely, you can and you ought to say, "It is 
good for me that I have been afflicted." I doubt 
not, my friend, that we shall hereafter look back 
upon our times of sickness as among the golden 
periods of our lives. Oh! let us so improve the 
D 



74 THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

discipline we have already experienced, that we 
shall be prepared for trials yet to come. Noth- 
ing hut a high degree of faith and of devotion 
to God can sustain us in adversity, and enable 
us to meet it with composure and cheerful res- 
ignation and hope. When other afflictions be- 
fall us, let them not find us as thoughtless and 
worldly as we have hitherto been. And when 
our last sickness comes, let it not surprise us in 
the midst of unholy pursuits and pleasures, or 
drag us out of the world, Avith our hands reach- 
ing back for its baubles of wealth and pleasure 
and fame. Rather, let it find us prepared for 
its approach, and able to give it welcome : able 
to say, Come on, not as men too often view thee, 
a spirit of darkness but as an angel of light. I 
have long waited for thy coming, thou messen- 
ger of God, sent to conduct me away from this 
world of pain, and languishing, and fear, and 
sin, to a world of perfect health, and holiness, 
and joy. 



FEARS OF DEATH. 



Death ! Who does not fear it ! Man mnst 
become something more or less than Iranian, not 
to tremble at its presence. This fear has respect 
to the pain of dying, the sundering of domestic 
and social ties, the giving np of all earthly joys, 
pursuits and hopes ; the darkness and corrup- 
tion of the grave, and the solemn revelations of 
the judgment and eternity. In view of one or 
all these considerations, man shrinks back from 
death : he dreads to look into the darkness be- 
fore him, and often tries to banish from his mind 
all thoughts of dying, by the contemplation of 
vain and frivolous things, or he sinks into des- 
pair. 

"The weariest and most loathed worldly life 

That age, ache, penury and imprisonment can lay on man, 

Is paradise to what we fear of death." 

This aversion to death is, in a great degree, 
natural to man : the devoutest Christian cannot 
wholly rise above it. And yet, there is reason 



76 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

to believe that many persons suffer from imagi- 
nary fears on this subject ; they are all their 
life-time the victims of a self-imposed bondage 
on account of it, and in the hour of sickness and 
decline find their tranquillity disturbed, their res- 
olution weakened, and their hopes beclouded. 
This being so, it may not be unprofitable for us 
to inquire, briefly, into the ground of this fear. 
Especially, in regard to the pain of dying, and 
the darkness and corruption of the grave, we 
think a few plain considerations may relieve 
some needless anxieties. 

It is a settled principle among physiologists, 
(so a medical friend informs us,) that in order to 
a person's experiencing pain, those nerves which 
ordinarily convey the sensation of touch, must 
possess their natural sensibility. When, for ex- 
ample, a limb is paralyzed, and thus the tender- 
ness of those nerves is destroyed, one may punc- 
ture the part affected without producing pain. 
Now, it is the nature of disease to diminish the 
sensibility of the nervous system, so that when 
death itself intervenes, the pain of dissolution 
is comparatively slight. 

Since men commonly struggle when in dis- 
tress of any kind, many infer that death is ne- 



FEARS OF DEATH. 71 

cessarily painful, because most persons struggle 
in the hour of its approach. But this conclu- 
sion is incorrect, because such movements of the 
body are merely muscular, and often take place 
when the subject is totally unconscious of them. 
" Decapitate an animal, and the body will strug- 
gle for a considerable time, though the head, 
which is the seat of consciousness, is entirely 
separated from it. Yery commonly, convul- 
sions occur in cases of apoplexy, and when some 
injury has been done to the brain, long after 
consciousness has been suspended. Within a 
certain period after death, those struggles and 
contortions of the countenance which are asso- 
ciated in the mind with the most excruciating 
pain, can be excited by the application of gal- 
vanism." We have the testimony of persons 
recovered from the brink of the grave, that, 
while their friends stood about them pitying 
their sufferings, their existence was a mere blank. 
Montaigne, when stunned by a fall from his 
horse, tore open his clothes, and exhibited other 
signs of distress, but it afterwards appeared that 
he was senseless at the time, and knew what he 
had experienced and done, only as informed by 
his friends. 



78 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

Many persons having endured extreme pain 
without dying, infer that life could not be en- 
tirely destroyed, without causing still greater 
suffering. But if disease benumbs the nervous 
sensibility as it advances, its progress will not 
bring increasing pain. Those who die from fe- 
vers, and many other diseases, suffer their great- 
est distress hours, days, and sometimes weeks 
before the event of dissolution. "Those who 
faint from the loss of a little blood, or on any 
other occasion, have already experienced all the 
pain they ever would, did they not again revive." 
Persons who have been recovered from drown- 
ing, have described their sensations immediately 
before they became unconscious, as but little 
painful, and yet, had they never been restored, 
they would have suffered no more. Fontenelle, 
the poet, in allusion to his increasing infirmities 
shortly before death, wittily remarked that he 
was about to decamp, and had sent his heavy 
baggage on before. So, in sober fact, it often 
is : that which is most distressing in dissolution, 
is over before the hour of death comes. The 
cases in which dying is exceedingly painful, are 
those, generally, in which life is taken away 
without a previous destruction of the nervous 



FEARS OF DEATH. 79 

system. But in a great majority of these and 
other instances, the pains of dissolution are over- 
rated. Li respect to death from consumption, 
a pleasing writer has observed : " Consumptive 
patients are sometimes in a dying state for sev- 
eral days ; they appear at such times to suffer 
little, but to languish for complete dissolution ; 
nay, I have known them to express great unea- 
siness when they have been recalled from the 
commencement of insensibility by the cries of 
their friends, or the efforts of their attendants 
to arouse them. In observing persons in this 
situation, I have always been impressed with an 
idea that the approach of actual death produces 
a sensation similar to that of falling asleep. The 
disturbance of respiration is the only apparent 
source of wonrincss to the dying ; and sensibility 
teems to be impaired in exact proportion to the 
decrease of that function. Besides, both the 
impressions of present objects and those recalled 
by memory, are influenced by the extreme de- 
bility of the patient, whose wish is for absolute 
T could never see the close of life under 
these circumstances, without recalling those 
beautiful lines <>l* Spenser: 

'Sleep after toil, port after stormy seas, 
EMC after war, death after life, doth greatly please.'" 



80 THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

And what is commonly true of this disease, 
is so likewise of many others. " If I had strength 
enough to hold a pen," said "William Hunter, 
" I would write how easy and delightful it is to 
die." " If this be dying," said the niece of John 
Newton, " it is a pleasant thing to die." And 
this excellent man himself tells us that he 
watched his dying wife some hours, with a can- 
dle in his hand, and when he was sure she had 
breathed her last, — which could not at once be 
determined, she died so imperceptibly, — he 
knelt down and thanked the Lord for her peace- 
ful dismission. " If this be dying, it is the easi- 
est thing imaginable," said Lady Glenorchy. 
" I thought that dying had been more difficult," 
said Louis XIY. Testimony of this sort might be 
collected sufficient to cover many pages. The For- 
eign Quarterly Review for December, 1849, (to 
which the writer would hereby acknowledge his 
indebtedness,) contains an interesting account of 
the death of the son of Edmund Burke, a part 
of which we here quote : " Hearing his parents 
sobbing in another room, at the prospect of an 
event they knew to be inevitable, he rose from 
his bed, joined his illustrious father, and endeav- 
ored to engage him in a cheerful conversation. 



FEARS OF DEATH. 81 

Burke continued silent, choked with grief. His 
son made an effort to console him. ' I am under 
no terror,' he said, 'I feel myself better, and in 
spirits, and yet my heart flutters, I know not 
why. Pray, talk to me, sir ! talk of religion ; 
talk of morality ; talk, if you will, of indifferent 
subjects.' Here, a voice attracted his notice, 
and he exclaimed, ' Does it rain ? No, it is the 
rustling of the wind through the trees.' The 
whistling of the wind and the waving of the 
trees brought Milton's majestic lines to his mind, 
and he repeated them with uncommon grace and 
effect : 

1 His praise, ye winds that from four quarters blow, 
Breathe soft or loud ; and wave your tops, ye pines ; 
Witli every plant, in sign of worship wave I ' 

" A second time he took up the sublime and 
melodious strain, and accompanying the action 
to the word, waved his own hand in token of 
worship, and sunk into the arms of his father — 
a corpse. Not a sensation told him that in an 
instant he would stand in the presence of the 
Creator to whom his body was bent in homage, 
and whose praises still resounded from his lips. 
But commonly, the hand of death is felt for one 
brief moment before the work is done." 
D* e 



82 thougiits for the afflicted. 

From considerations and examples like the 
foregoing, there is, plainly, no foundation for the 
popular belief that the extinction of life is uni- 
formly painful. Doubtless, most persons sutler 
severer pain in some of the various sicknesses 
to which they are subject in the course of life, 
and in some surgical operations, than they will, 
in " the article of death." We read that the 
venerable Thomas Fuller, having considered the 
various ways in which life is destroyed, came to 
this short and decisive conclusion, " None please 
me. But away with these thoughts," the good 
man adds, " the mark must not choose what ar- 
row shall be shot against it." We are not per- 
mitted to decide by what manner of death we 
will die, and it is well that we are not. But 
there is this consolation, that as a general rule, 
the fear of dying is more distressing than the 
reality. 

Moreover, in the weariness and pains of our 
sickness, and in our forebodings of the dying 
hour, it is well for us who hope in Christ to re- 
member that in his death, he drank a far bitterer 
cup than it can be our lot to taste. There was 
the driving of the spikes through his hands and 
feet, the fever which ensued, and an intolerable 



FEARS OF DEATH. 83 

ri the rankling of his wounds 
caused by every attempt to writhe under his suf- 
ferings, and all prolonged until death released 
him from his agonies. His life was destroyed 
by violence, in the vigor of his manhood and 
perfect health, with his nervous energies unim- 
paired : consequently, it was a most painful 
death. Let us be thankful that it is not ap- 
pointed us to follow him in the mode of his dy- 
ing, and that he was willing to undergo such 
sufferings in order to extract the sting from death 
in our behalf, and to give us victory over the 
grave ! 

It was remarked on a former page, that many 
persons fear death because of the loathsomeness 
of the grave, and other painful associations con- 
nected with it. For example, some, having 
heard of instances in which it was supposed 
other persons were interred before actual death, 
fear lest it may be so, eventually, with them. 
But a careful investigation of this matter has 
convinced men of science and observation, that 
such cases are exceedingly rare. There are cer- 
tain well-understood signs of death, which are 
almost unmistakable, and corpses are seldom 
buried until some of these have been developed. 



84 THOUGHTS FOE TOE AFFLICTED. 

Because some bodies, on being exhumed, have 
been found with their position somewhat changed, 
it has been hastily inferred that life was not ex- 
tinct when they were buried. But it is well 
known that in the natural progress of decompo- 
sition, the muscular fibers of one side or portion 
of the body frequently relax sooner than the 
other, and cause the body to be drawn slightly 
out of its original position. Moreover, such 
changes in the position of a corpse are often 
chargeable to the mistakes or carelessness of 
pall-bearers in carrying the coffin, or in deposit- 
ing it in the tomb. There is little reason, we 
think, for any one to harass his mind with ap- 
prehensions on this point. 

Again, many persons trouble themselves with 
the thought that their bodies will become "the 
food of worms." They might be so troubled, 
justly, perhaps, were there any ground for this 
popular notion. But the most eminent physi- 
cians tell us that there is nothing in the nature 
of the human body to indicate that worms prey 
upon the buried corpse. If properly interred, 
it decays, and literally returns to the dust from 
which it was taken. In confirmation of this, it 
is well known that when bodies long buried are 



FEARS OF DEATH. 85 

exhumed, they are commonly found "with all the 
features perfect, though on exposure to the air, 
they crumble in pieces. The fact that we read 
in Scripture: "Though after my skin worms de- 
stroy this oody" &c, (Job 19 : 26,) is no proof 
that the body is the victim of such ravages. The 
word " worms " does not appear in the original 
Hebrew, but is supplied by our translators, and 
that without any semblance of reason ; — so the 
best expositors declare. The same superstition 
is referred to in the familiar lines of the poet : 

"The deep, damp vault, the darkness and the -worm." 



truth, let us banish it, and all other imaginary 
fears from our minds. To die, is a solemn and 
momentous thing enough, without its being in- 
vested with unreal terrors. Especially, if we 
are the followers of Christ, and thus partake of 
the benefits of his sufferings, what reason have 
we for fear ? He " took part of flesh and blood, 
that through death he might destroy him that 
had the power of death, that is the devil, and 
deliver them who, through fear of death, were 
all their life-time subject to bondage." In en- 
tering the tomb, we do but follow in his foot- 



86 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

steps : we sleep where his precious body once 
reposed. If death were more dreadful than we 
know it to be, it would be unchristian in us to 
shrink and tremble at the thought of its ap- 
proach. God has promised that he will never 
leave nor forsake his children ; that he will be 
their refuge and strength, a very present help in 
trouble ; that he will strengthen them on the 
bed of languishing ; that he will be their guide 
even unto death ; and that when they walk 
through the valley of the shadow of death, he 
will be with them, and his rod and staff shall 
comfort them. Has God forsaken you, Christian 
reader, in the trials you have hitherto been 
called to encounter ? Does he not support you 
now % Tou cannot be so thankless as to say, 
Nay. Then why not confide in him for the fu- 
ture ? Do not grieve him by your ingratitude, 
and by your distrust of his faithfulness. Leave 
future trials where God has placed them, in the 
future. " As thy days, so shall thy strength be." 
Cast to the winds your doubts and fears. He 
that believeth, shall not be confounded. Entrust 
yourself, — and oh! rejoice that you may so en- 
trust — your soul and body in his good hands, 
for the present and for the future, and be happy 



FEARS OF DEATH. 87 

in him. And whenever death shall come, it 
will be less painful than you had feared ; and in 
addition to this, you will find the Saviour by 
the side of your dying pillow, and he will ac- 
company you in every step of your way through 
the dark valley. 



PREPARATION FOR DEATH. 



My Dear Friend: 

Your last letter refers to a subject of the 
greatest importance. You say that being in de- 
clining health, your thoughts have lately been 
directed, in an uncommon degree, to the future 
world, and to your preparation for it. The great 
inquiry with you now seems to be : Am I a 
Christian ? Have I experienced that spiritual 
change without which no man can see the king- 
dom of God ? As you desire faithful counsel on 
this subject, I will mention some of the eviden- 
ces of a religious character, which intelligent 
and devout Christians regard as most scriptual 
and decisive. Such a character, you most truly 
say, is the essential preparation for life or for 
death. 

I need hardly remind you that it is no mark 
of a Christian for one to have felt, at a certain 
time, great alarm on account of his sins and of 
his exposure to the wrath of God, and to have 



PREPARATION FOR DEATH. 89 

had such fears followed by emotions of joy ; or 
that he formerly had great zeal for religion, and 
was regarded by others as truly pious ; or that 
during some particular period of doubt and anx- 
iety, his eyes happened to fall upon certain pas- 
sages of Scripture which assured him of salva- 
tion; or that he has had strange dreams and 
unaccountable impressions and impulses, and 
seen wonderful visions. These and similar 
things may sometimes enter into the experience 
of Christians, but they are not scriptural evi- 
dences of piety. And it is a matter of common 
observation, that many persons in whom they 
once appeared, have afterwards proved too 
plainly, that they were destitute of true religion. 
Without dwelling on this point, however, let 
me say that one distinctive mark of a Christian 
may be found in his views and feelings concern- 
ing sin. An irreligious man may be as well in- 
formed as he, respecting the nature and conse- 
quences of sin, but he has no heartfelt, practi- 
cal conviction of its vileness and ill-desert, nor 
of his duty to repent of it. The mind of the 
Christian is not engrossed, it is true, with fear 
of the punishment his sins deserve ; but he thinks 
often, and with a humble, penitent heart, of the 



90 THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

righteous law he has broken, of the Fatherly 
goodness lie has abused, and the compassion of 
a Saviour he has returned so long with ingrati- 
tude and unbelief, if not with scorn. His sins 
appear odious in every aspect ; he mourns over 
them, he devoutly prays God to forgive them, 
and makes it his constant endeavor to turn from 
them, and to lead a holy life. 

This penitent, filial disposition of the true 
child of God, has often been illustrated * in this 
way : Suppose you have a child who frequently 
disobeys your commands, and neglects the du- 
ties you require of him ; yet, if this neglect and 
disobedience seems to proceed from thoughtless- 
ness, rather than from a rebellious disposition, 
and if he appears sincerely penitent, and every 
day comes and tells you, with tears in his eyes, 
" Father, I love you ; I am sorry that I have 
done wrong ; I am ashamed of myself, and won- 
der that you have patience to bear with me ; " — 
you will love and forgive such a child, and feel 
that there is hope of his reformation. But, 
should he say, or could you read the feeling in 
his heart, "Father, I cannot love you; I have 
never felt one emotion of love towards you, and 

* By Dr. Pajson and other writers. 



PREPARATION FOR DEATH. 91 

I have no wish to obey your commands ; " — 
you would say, his case is hopeless ; there is 
nothing left for me to work upon ; no penitence, 
no affection, no desire to do right. 

There is another thought, suggested by the 
very name of the Christian, viz : his relation to 
Christ, He believes in Jesus Christ as his Sa- 
viour. Deeply sensible of his guilt, and of his 
utter dependence on the mercy of God, he re- 
nounces all other hopes, and cordially accepts 
the terms of salvation offered in the gospel. 
Christ is his only refuge, his only hope and com- 
fort. The plan of redemption is, in his view, 
the perfection of wisdom and love ; and he de- 
sires to be saved in no other way. Christ is 
precious to him, above the power of language 
to express. To his merciful, faithful and all- 
powerful hands, he joyfully commits his soul 
and all his interests, for time and for eternity. 
Such a faith brings him into peace with God, 
and entitles him to all the privileges of God's 
children. Having this, he is equally prepared 
to live or to die. 

When President Dwight, having been raised 
from the borders of the grave, appeared again, 
for the first time in his pulpit, he declared to 



ya THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

his hearers, with deep solemnity, that " the mer- 
cy of God, as exercised towards our lost race, 
through the righteousness of the Redeemer, 
yielded him the only foundation of hope for good 
beyond the grave." Robert Hall said of him- 
self, in similar circumstances : " Filled with an 
overflowing sense of my unworthiness, my mind 
was supported merely by a faith in Christ cruci- 
fied. I would not for the world have parted 
with that text, ' The Mood of Christ cleanseth us 
from all sin.'' " And such has been the testi- 
mony of thousands, in every walk of life. A 
simple, self-renouncing faith in Jesus Christ, lies 
at the basis of the Christian character; and is, 
consequently, the basis of a true preparation for 
death. 

And here, my friend, I might properly close 
this letter ; for we are told that " whosoever be- 
lieveth, shall not come into condemnation, but 
is passed from death unto life." " God does not 
bring a pair of scales," says an old divine, " to 
weigh your graces, and if they be too light, re- 
fuseth them ; but he brings a touchstone to try 
them, and if they be pure gold, though ever so 
little of it, it will pass current with him." Suf- 
fer me then to ask, dear sir, whether you sin- 



PREPARATION FOR DEATH. 93 

cerely repent of sin, and believe in Christ as 
your only Saviour. If so, you are a child of 
God, and nothing can harm you, in life or in 
death. 

But repentance and faith are uniformly ac- 
companied by other traits of Christian charac- 
ter. For example : a supreme regard for the 
glory of God. The true believer's daily prayer 
is, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " He 
cheerfully gives up everything that conflicts 
with the known will of God. Whatever may 
be the opinions or practices of other men, he 
stands forth on the Lord's side ; casts his proper- 
ty, his talents, his influence, his all, into the 
scale of religion, and makes the promotion of 
Christ's cause the leading object of his life. He 
is deeply pained whenever he hears the name, 
or character, or word of God dishonored, and 
he rejoices from his inmost soul, whenever, and 
by whomsoever he sees God glorified. 

Again ; a Christian is distinguished by love 
fur the people of God. " We know that we 
have passed from death unto life, because we 
love the brethren." The Christian cherishes a 
love of benevolence towards all men, but he 
feels a love of complacency for those only who 



94 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

bear the image of Christ. He loves them sim- 
ply because they love God. Other things being 
the same, he prefers their society and conversa- 
tion and friendship to that of worldly men ; and 
he loves them the more, in proportion as they 
exhibit the real excellencies of the Christian 
character. 

Let me observe, also, that the Christian makes 
progress in religious attainments. If you ex- 
amine the various similitudes by which a life of 
piety is set forth in scripture, you will see in 
them all, conspicuously, the idea of progress, 
progress. The Christian does not stand still in 
his course, any more than the growing grain, or 
the traveler, or the warrior, or the ascending 
sun, to each of which lie is likened. His reli- 
gious advancement may not be always uniform, 
or rapid ; but his life, taken as a whole, indi- 
cates improvement. The principles of piety be- 
come more and more firmly established in his 
heart, and his life becomes more and more con- 
formed to the pattern of the gospel. 

I will mention one other evidence of Christian 
character, viz : an impartial and cheerful obedi- 
ence to the requirements of the gospel. Faith 
without works is dead. If we love God, he 



PREPARATION FOR DEATH. 95 

himself says, we will keep his commandments. 
And our obedience must be impartial. "Ye 
are my friends," said Christ, " if ye do whatso- 
ever I command you." Accordingly, we have 
no right to select certain duties which are com- 
paratively easy and agreeable to perform, and 
then neglect all others. Head attentively the 
parable of the young ruler, for a most impres- 
sive illustration of this truth. We must obey 
those precepts of the Bible which have refer- 
ence to God, as well as those which respect men ; 
those which humble our pride, and conflict with 
our natural inclinations, and require self-denial 
and sacrifice, as well as those which suit our 
taste, and make no special trial of faith and pa- 
tience. 

This obedience, moreover, must be cheerfully 
rendered. "This is the love of God, that we 
keep his commandments, and his cornmandments 
are not grievous." Ah ! here is the mark of 
God's children ; they keep his commandments, 
not from compulsion, nor from a mercenary 
spirit, but because they love to keep them. They 
delight in his law after the inner man. 

Such, my friend, are some of the scriptural 
and most decisive evidences of piety. They 



96 THOUGHTS FOK THE AFFLICTED. 

may not all appear with the same distinctness in 
every Christian, but they will not be wholly 
wanting in any. A poor and illiterate woman 
once applied to Dr. Chalmers for admission to 
membership in his church, but she appeared so 
weak-minded, and so ignorant of the cardinal 
doctrines of the Bible, that he dismissed her. 
She rose to go away, but lingered a while at the 
door, and then turning to the minister with tears 
in her eyes, said : " Master, I cannot speak well 
for my Saviour, but I could die for him." Chal- 
mers at once called her back, and after a little 
further conversation, told her she could unite 
with the church on the following Sabbath. And 
so it is : constitutional traits, education, and va- 
rious other circumstances give prominence to 
different features of Christian character ; and 
yet, wherever genuine piety exists, it will man- 
ifest itself by some unmistakable tokens. 

I trust, dear sir, that a faithful examination 
will discover to you some such tokens in your- 
self. If, indeed, as you say, your sins distress 
you, do not brood over them despairingly, but 
go at once to Christ for forgiveness. Go, just 
as you are, to be made what you should be. 
" Be not afraid, only believe," said Christ ; and 



PREPARATION FOR DEATH. 97 

why should you distrust his promises ? Make 
yourself over, wholly and forever, to him. Ap- 
propriate the provisions of the gospel by an un- 
wavering faith. Go forward in discharge of all 
your duties. Then you will have nothing more 
to desire or to fear. You will be prepared for 
life and for death. If God prolong your days 
and give you prosperity, you can receive them 
thankfully, and use them as his gifts. If sick- 
ness and manifold trials are sent upon you, you 
will be sustained under them, and be sanctified 
by them. And when death comes, you will be 
enabled to meet it with composure ; you will 
welcome it as God's angel, sent to bear you 
above this world of sin and woe, to a world of 
holiness and everlasting felicity. Your life being 
hid with Christ in God, when He who is your 
life shall appear, then shall you also appear with 
him in glory. 

" It matters little at what hour of day 
The righteous fall asleep. Death cannot come 
To him untimely, who is fit to die ; 
The less of this cold world, the more of heaven; 
The briefer life, the earlier immortality." 

E 7 



TO DIE IS GAIN. 



" To die is gain." So said the apostle Paul. 
But is it really so ? At least, can I say so, with- 
out presumption, and in sober truth, and sincer- 
ity ? I would not speak thus, simply because 
some other person has made such a declaration. 
I might say so, indeed, in a moment of impatience 
or despair, when frustrated in my plans, disap- 
pointed in my hopes, or when worn down by 
sickness, or when the world seems, in every view 
of it, barren of good. Judas, while hurrying 
forth to hang himself, thought it were better to 
die than to live; and so have all suicides thought. 
But this was not the spirit of Paul. "With a 
heart full of love to God and man, grateful for 
the mercies he had received, and content to live 
so long as God should appoint, he, nevertheless, 
soberly, honestly thought it would be an advan- 
tage to depart and be with Christ. 

Nor is he alone in this matter. Job says : 
"All the days of my appointed time will I wait y 



TO DIE IS GAEf. 99 

till my change come." Peter, also, speaks with 
composure and cheerful hope, of the time when 
he should " put off this tabernacle, as the Lord 
Jesus had showed him." And John, looking 
forward to the coming of his Saviour, exclaims 
with joyful expectation : "Even so, come, Lord 
Jesus ! " 

Why, then, should not I consider it better to 
die than to live ? So long as I remain in this 
world, I shall be exposed to suffering. Sick- 
ness, weariness, pain and various infirmities are 
the earthly portion of all men, in a greater or 
less degree ; and these things, certainly, are not 
in themselves to be desired. "Would it not be 
an advantage to be free from all mental suffer- 
ing, — all anxiety, care, disappointment and 
fear ? And I shall be, as soon as I leave this 
mortal scene. 

Would there not be a gain, too, in the matter 
of society ? God has given me many friends in 
this world, whose fellowship I highly prize, and for 
which I would be thankful. But the best of men 
are imperfect, and the great majority of mankind 
are 6uch as the Christian cannot associate with, 
without injury and pain. I know, indeed, that 
I ought to try to make the world better, instead 



100 THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

of seeking a premature release from it. May 
God grant me grace so to do. But when his ap- 
pointed time for my departure shall come, will 
it not be a desirable thing to turn away from the 
envy, selfishness, jealousy, pride, strife, irreli- 
gion and crime which abound here on every 
hand ? Verily it would be a blessed thing to be 
admitted into the society of heaven ; to see the 
throng of holy men who have been redeemed 
from every nation and kindred and tongue and 
people ; to stand by the side of Abraham and 
David and Isaiah, and Paul and Luther, and the 
saints of all ages ; to hold communion with an- 
gels, and with the adorable Saviour himself ! 

And then, there would be the blessed gain of 
freedom from sin. Freedom from that which 
now draws me away from God, — which cor- 
rupts my soul and fills it with sorrow; freedom 
from unbelief and pride and ingratitude. I 
should be where God is, glorious in his holiness, 
where every heart beats in perfect love to him, 
where all my thoughts and desires, my enjoy- 
ments and employments would be holy. 

Now, I cannot deny the force of considera- 
tions like these. My judgment is convinced that 
it is better for a Christian to depart and be with 



TO DEE IS GAIN. 101 

Christ, than to live. And jet, so weak is my 
faith, that when I look abroad on this beautiful 
world, my heart clings to it, loth to give it up. 
But a heavenly Voice seems to whisper to my 
heart, saying : Beautiful and attractive as this 
world is, the world of glory far surpasses it. 
That has more resplendent skies, fairer land- 
scapes, forms of more transcendent majesty and 
loveliness, and is vocal with sweeter music. 
Rest assured that whatever is beautiful and good 
on earth, is only a type, a faint shadow, of some- 
thing infinitely better in heaven. Tou have not 
yet seen the greatest and best of God's works ; 
that sight is reserved for you in a better country, 
even an heavenly. 

But my faint heart shrinks back again, say- 
ing : "Would that I were more confident of my 
acceptance with God ; — then I might be more 
willing to stand before him. The Voice replies : 
Ah ! you ought to be more confident. It is your 
privilege, and your duty, to enjoy a full assu- 
rance of hope; to rejoice continually in the firm 
persuasion that nothing can separate you from 
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. 

But again my heart responds : Here are kin- 
dred and friends around me, and here is the 



102 THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

church of Christ, for whose welfare I feel the 
deepest interest ; how can I turn away from them ! 
The Voice answers : God has promised to take 
care of your kindred ; do not doubt his word. 
And if you are utterly unwilling to be separa- 
ted from your friends, remember that Christ 
says : " He that loveth father or mother, wife or 
children more than me, is not worthy of me." 
And as to your being withdrawn from labors for 
the good of the church and the world, do not 
indulge such an idea. Your example and your 
prayers and your efforts hitherto will survive 
you. And your departure from the world may 
be so ordered that it will be of more service to 
others than your life would be, though it were 
prolonged many years. 

Oh ! do not cling to this world with such a 
tenacious grasp. It does not deserve your idola- 
try. Look upward. There is something better, 
oh ! infinitely better than this life, or God would 
not remove his children from it by death. Good 
as the present world is, there is a better to come. 
Think more about that ; bring it near, and make 
it an acknowledged and delightful reality. Let 
your affections fasten upon it ; let its rest, its 
holiness, its joys, its glory so fill your thoughts 



TO DIE IS GAIN-. 103 

that you will really live above the world, while 
you live in it ; that, though you may be willing 
to live and labor, or suffer, so long as God ap- 
points, yet, when the time of your release comes, 
you will be enabled to leave the world without 
regret, yea, choosing rather to depart and be 
present with the Lord. 

" One hour, and the dark storm goes by ; 
One step, and on the heavenly shore, 
You stand beneath a cloudless sky, 
And drink in joy forevermore." 



THE PILGRIMS NEAR THE END OF 
THEIR JOURNEY. 



Having, in former days, met and conversed 
with pilgrims to the heavenly Jerusalem, I 
thought it might be interesting and profitable to 
discourse with them, also, as they approached 
the end of their journey. I had observed that 
they differed much in spirit and deportment. 
One was desponding, and faint with his travels. 
To him the road seemed rugged, and beset with 
a thousand obstacles ; clouds and storms darkened 
his prospects ; he feared he should not hold out 
unto the end. 

Another was of a more cool and philosophical 
habit of mind. Difficulties surrounded him ; but 
instead of being daunted by them, he occupied 
himself in speculating about the cause of their 
existence ; and, indeed, about the cause of diffi- 
culty in general. He wondered why God had 
induced him to undertake this pilgrimage, while 
many others were left to pursue the road to de- 
struction ; and he declared to all he met, that 



NEAK THE END OF THE JOUENEY. 105 

unless a divine Voice had called him, he should 
never have entered the way of life, but that 
since God had set his feet heavenward, he was 
certain to persevere. 

Another was a more cheerful, hopeful spirit. 
Doubts and fears seldom troubled him. His 
thoughts were rarely occupied about the free- 
dom of man's will, the sovereignty of God, and 
the origin of sin and evil. He simply knew that 
there was much sin in the world, and in his own 
soul, and he was very desirous to have it exter- 
minated from both. Bat he reflected that God 
reigned, and so he went on his way rejoicing. 
As he journeyed, he was wont to ascend the 
hills for a wider view of the country through 
which he was passing, and he often looked away 
toward the River of Death, and caught glimpses 
of the glories outspread beyond it. He loved 
to recount daily how much his heavenly Father 
had done to make pilgrims happy. Every ray 
of sunlight on his path, the carol of birds, the 
bubbling spring, the various places of rest and 
refreshment by the wayside, — these all filled his 
heart with gratitude and joy. 

Then there were still other pilgrims, as vari- 
ous, indeed, in character as their dispositions, 



106 THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

education, age and other circumstances, would 
naturally serve to make them. They were all 
true pilgrims, and yet they exhibited traits of 
character as dissimilar as their faces. As I no- 
ticed this thing from time to time, the inspired 
saying rose to my mind, " Now there are diver- 
sities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there 
are diversities of operations ; but it is the same 
God which worketh all in all." 

Having observed these things in former days, 
when the pilgrims were in the midst of their 
journey, or had just set out upon it, I felt desi- 
rous to see whether the same diversities of char- 
acter would be exhibited at their approach to 
the end of their pilgrimage. Accordingly, I 
placed myself on the shore of the River of Death, 
within sight of the celestial city, and watched 
them as they successively came up to this ter- 
mination of their journey. I soon detected the 
same peculiarities that I had noticed before. 
The trials and the varied experience of the re- 
mainder of their pilgrimage had indeed wrought 
changes in them all, and generally for the bet- 
ter, but they still appeared as unlike as formerly. 

Here were fearful, desponding pilgrims. A 
few of them were as disconsolate as in former 



NEAR THE END OF THE JOURNEY. 107 

days ; they trembled and grew pale with terror, 
as they came up to the river and looked into its 
turbid waters. "Alas!" said one of them, "I 
fear my faith and hope will fail me. I shall be 
left to deny my Saviour. It cannot be that I 
shall ever reach heaven." 

Others, who had been easily and often cast 
down during their journey, and who had looked 
forward to Death with gloomy forebodings, now 
came up to it with composure. They were sur- 
prised to find the dreaded stream so smooth and 
so narrow : they felt themselves sustained by an 
invisible Hand, and so near and enchanting was 
the view across the river, that they thought but 
little of what lay between. They eluded them- 
selves for their former want of faith in God's 
promises, and sent back word to their friends on 
the way, saying, " Fear not, neither be afraid ; 
only trust in the Lord. Ye shall not fall one day 
by the* hand of Saul, nor be overwhelmed in 
death." One of them, in particular, exclaimed 
to those about him, " Behold in me a demonstra- 
tion of the reality and power of faith and godli- 
ness ! I, once a poor, weak and timorous man, — 
once as much afraid of death as any one — I, 
who was many years under the terrors of death, 



108 THOUGHTS FOB THE AFFLICTED. 

do come, in the mercy of God, and by the pow- 
er of his grace, composedly and with joy, to 
look death in the face. Oh ! sirs, I could not 
have believed that I could bear, and bear cheer- 
fully, as I have done, the toils and sufferings of 
this pilgrimage, and now take its last step with- 
out fear." * 

On looking still further, I saw an anxious, 
trembling pilgrim, who had seldom been known 
to tremble before. He now mourned that he 
had turned aside so often during his journey 
hitherward, to parley with those who were going 
in an opposite direction ; that he had occupied 
so much of his time and thoughts with things 
which did not properly concern pilgrims ; and 
had done so little to encourage his fellow-trav- 
elers, or to induce others to journey with him. 
Doubts and fears haunted him continually. 
" Can God forgive me ? " he said to his compan- 
ions. " "Will he not treat me now, as 1 have 
hitherto treated him ? Will he hold me up, — 
alas ! why should he not desert me amid the 
swellings of Jordan ? " And in this despairing 
mood he went from one to another, seeking con- 
solation ; and so I lost sight of him. 

* Halyburton. 



NEAR THE END OF THE JOURNEY. 109 

There was another desponding pilgrim ; des- 
ponding, because he did not experience such 
raptures, and behold such ecstatic visions as he 
had expected near the end of his journey. His 
fears, however, were soon allayed, on recollect- 
ing that God had not promised such things to his 
children ; that though some, either from pecu- 
liar constitutional traits, or by the special provi- 
dence of God, were made the subjects of such 
experience, yet, that those who were not, might 
have equally good title to heaven. He learned 
that God had simply promised never to leave or 
forsake those who trusted in him ; to deliver 
them from every foe, and bring them safe to the 
celestial city. 

Shortly after these fearful ones had passed by, 
there came up a pilgrim of a different charac- 
ter. He was little moved by what he saw before 
or around him. He believed that God had called 
him to enter upon this journey, and would sure- 
ly enable him to complete it. From the time he 
entered upon it, he had steadily pursued his way 
heavenward, turning neither to the right hand 
nor to the left, — seldom elated, seldom cast 
down, — habitually absorbed in contemplation 
of God's character and government and purpo- 



110 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

ses, and willing to leave all things to his sover- 
eign control. And so now, as he descended 
to the brink of the river, there was a settled 
composure on his face, and his feelings were 
summed up in his parting words, "The Lord 
reigneth ; I am content." 

Next, I observed some more joyous pilgrims. 
They had passed through many dangers, but had 
now forgotten them all. Their tears were tears 
of joy. Their faces beamed with light reflected 
from the celestial city, at which they were in- 
tently looking. Said one of them, "I am in a 
strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and 
to be with Christ." And another, "I am fast 
going to a crown of glory." * And another, 
" Oh ! help me to praise God. I have now 
nothing else to do. I have done with prayer, 
and all other ordinances. Before a few hours 
are over, I shall be in eternity, singing the song 
of Moses and the Lamb."f "This is heaven 
begun," exclaimed another.:}: And another, 
" My soul breathes after God. "When shall I 
come to God, my exceeding joy."§ And an- 
other, pointing to the distant shores, exclaimed 
with holy rapture, "Forever with the Lord! 

* St. Augustine, f Janeway. X ^ r - Scott. § David Brainard. 



NEAR THE END OF THE JOURNEY. Ill 

Forever with the Lord."* And still another, 
" The celestial city is in full view. Its glories 
beam upon me, its breezes fan me, its odors arc 
wafted to me, its sounds strike upon my ears, 
and its spirit is breathed into my heart. Noth- 
ing separates me from it but the River of Death, 
which now appears but as an insignificant rill, 
that may be crossed at a single step, whenever 

God shall give permission Victory, 

victory, peace, peace." f 

As 1 continued to watch the throng of pilgrims 
passing by, I noticed others of a still different 
character. They approached the end of their 
journey, not without emotion, indeed, but with- 
out fear. They felt unworthy of the name of 
pilgrims to the heavenly city, and unworthy of 
the rewards promised them at the end of their 
journey ; but they had long ago given up ex- 
pecting to feel worthy of their privileges ; they 
ascribed all to Christ, and depended on him for 
every blessing. And now, as they went down 
to the margin of the river, it was with entire 
self-distrust, but with nndoubting reliance upon 
the promise of God, saying, "Though I walk 
through the valley of the shadow of death, 1 

* Robert Haldane. f Dr. Payeon. 



112 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

will fear no evil, — for thou art with me ; thy 
rod and thy staff they comfort me." One aged 
traveler had forgotten the names of even famil- 
iar things seen during his journey. His own 
name was spoken, but he replied, " I know not 
the man." Mention was made of his beloved 
and only son, but he replied, " I have no son." 
At length, a friend spoke of the Redeemer of 
men. The venerable pilgrim suddenly raised 
himself upon his staff, and with kindling eyes, 
exclaimed, " I remember the Saviour ; yes, I do 
remember the Lord Jesus Christ."* Another 
said, " I find myself to have been full of sin, 
ignorance, weakness, unfaithfulness and guilt. 
But Jesus is my hope. Washed in his blood, 
justified by his righteousness, sanctified by his 
grace, I have peace with God. This is my testi- 
mony." f And another, of kindred spirit, de- 
clared, " I feel utterly unworthy and sinful, but 
hope to be saved through the blood of Christ. 
I can commit my immortal all to him ; and I 
wish here to bear my final testimony, that I go 
down into the river before me trusting in no one 
but the Saviour. Without him, I should have 
no hope or comfort." % 

* Rev. Dr. Cogswell, f Dr. Bedell. % Dr. Cornelius. 



NEAK THE END OF THE JOUKNEY. 113 

And this, for substance, was the language of 
the great majority of the pilgrims whom I be- 
held. " I have no raptures," said one and an- 
other, " but I have peace, I have peace." There 
was no abrupt and striking dissimilarity between 
the testimony of their life in the midst and at 
the end of their pilgrimage. They appeared and 
spoke as they were wont to appear and to speak, 
though it may have been with more composure 
and solemnity. Their joys and raptures were 
reserved for the better country to which they 
were traveling. God supported them in cross- 
ing the stream of death, and admitted them at 
once to the heaventy city. 

I should not omit to speak, here, of some who 
finished their pilgrimage without leaving behind 
them any special declaration of their views and 
feelings at its close. One or two were strangely 
caught up by angels, and borne across the river 
without touching its cold and turbid waters. 
But of the others, to whom I now refer, the 
greater part had no need to make any final con- 
fession of their faith ; for their spirit and conver- 
sation throughout the journey furnished suffi- 
cient evidence that they loved God and were be- 
loved of him. If they gave no such parting 



114 THOUGHTS FOB THE AFFLICTED. 

testimony, it was because they were exhausted 
by the toils of their journey, or because their 
senses were weakened and stupefied by the chil- 
ling vapors of the valley into which they were 
entering. 

These pilgrims, of such various characters, 
were composed of persons of all ages. One tot- 
tered by, leaning on his staff, whose hoary head 
seemed a crown of glory, being found in the way 
of righteousness. There was also the man of 
middle life ; and the youth, whom God permit- 
ted to terminate his pilgrimage early, and to en- 
ter into rest. And there, too, were children and 
lisping infants, looking up to the celestial gates, 
whose coming seemed in obedience to the Sa- 
viour's invitation, " Suffer little children to come 
unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the 
kingdom of heaven." 

As I stood thus, and beheld the throng of trav- 
elers approaching the end of their pilgrimage, I 
felt that the ground on which I stood was holy. 
Here had passed by all the chosen of God from 
among men, on their way to heaven. Here were 
the footprints of Noah, and David, and Paul, and 
Luther, and all of like precious faith. Here was 
their last intercourse with the world ; where 



NEAR THE END OF THE JOURNEY. 115 

earthly companions bade them adieu, and angels 
and the Saviour came and met them, and bore 
them safe to heaven. 

It was a delightful, as well as holy place. A 
golden radiance spread over all nature, and 
balmy odors tilled the air. The pilgrims, too, 
with hardly an exception, were cheerful and full 
of hope. Their conversation was pleasing, ele- 
vated and comforting. Frequently their hearts 
ran over with joy, and they made the valley re- 
sound with music. And in the intervals of then- 
songs, one could hear sweet harmonies from the 
other side of the river. 

While witnessing these things, I could not but 
reflect that there was another road, at the termi- 
nation of which a widely different scene was 
presented. There were doubt, and fear, and re- 
morse, and despair, or blind and fatal presump- 
tion. There were darkness and horror, rebellion 
and cursing and blasphemy ; the beginning of 
sorrows in the world of everlasting woe. But 
around me were peace, and hope, and faith, and 
joy ; the faint beginnings of endless and ever- 
increasing glory. 

As I bade some of the pilgrims farewell, upon 
the shore of the river, I could not but congratu- 



116 THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

late them upon the happy close of their journey. 
Hail ! blessed spirits, I give ye joy ! Go, at the 
Saviour's call, and be forever with the Lord ! 
God grant me, in his own good time, as safe a 
termination of my pilgrimage, and an entrance 
through the gates into the city. 



DEATH FOLLOWED BY ETERNAL LIFE. 



" Oh ! who but must pine in this dark vale of tears, 

From its clouds and its shadows to go ! 
To walk in the light of the glory above, 
And to share in the peace, and the joy, and the love, 

Of the land which no mortal may know." 

Lime, as we do, in a world of sin, of sorrow, 
and of death, it is cheering to reflect that there 
remaineth a rest for the people of God. With- 
out this sustaining hope we could not well endure 
the trials of life, but with it they can be patient- 
ly borne, death itself can be met without fear, 
and the soul be made eager to depart and be 
with Christ, deeming it far better than to lire. 
And yet, we know but imperfectly what heaven 
is. God in his wisdom has concealed it in a 
great measure from our view, disclosing only 
enough to awaken our desires and hopes, to 
cheer our sorrows, and to animate us in making 
preparation for it. 

If the thoughts of a devout and intelligent 



118 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

Christian in meditation on the future life were 
to be clothed in words, they would run some- 
what thus : 

There are intimations in Scripture that heaven 
has locality — is a place. The Saviour once jaid 
to his disciples : " I go to prepare a place for 
you, that where I am ye may be also." More- 
over, Christ has a body, and so have Enoch and 
Elijah, and so will all the saints have, after the 
resurrection, and these bodies must occupy space, 
and have a local residence. 

However this may be, it is certain that those 
who obtain eternal life will be delivered from all 
the evils incident to their present material bodies. 
The possession of such a body, it is true, is not 
in itself an evil, nor the necessary occasion of 
sin. Adam, when first created, had a body es- 
sentially like mine, and at the same time was 
perfectly holy and happy. God himself was 
manifest in the flesh, and that without sin. It 
appears, too, that the soul, though received at 
death into heaven, does not attain its highest 
glory until it re-enters the body it once inhabi- 
ted. But since man has fallen, his body is en- 
compassed with a multitude of evils. Life-time 
is necessarily devoted, in no small measure, to 



DEATH FOLLOWED BY ETERNAL LIFE. 119 

clothing and feeding it, giving rest to its weari- 
ness, repressing its passions, guarding it from 
accidents, nursing Ht in its weakness, infirmities 
and decline, and all these ills are terminated by 
the agonies of its dissolution. 

But none of these things will follow the glori- 
fied soul to heaven. When my eyes close in 
death, they will never more behold anything that 
offends ; when this heart ceases to beat, it will 
never again be agitated with sorrow or with evil 
passions ; nor this body, in any of its members, 
be racked with pain. I cannot perceive precise- 
ly how the bodies of the saints will be recon- 
structed, or what faculties they will possess, but 
it is certain that all traces and effects of sin will 
be removed from them, and that they will be 
like unto Christ's glorious body. The mind, op- 
pressed here by the frame-work surrounding it, 
will there be elastic and free. Shattered reason 
will be restored to healthful activity. Eyes long 
sealed in blindness, will open upon the glories 
of the universe. The ear of the deaf shall be 
unstopped, and the tongue of the dumb shall 
sing. The redeemed of the Lord shall hunger 
no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall 
the sun light on them, nor any heat ; for the 



120 THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall 
feed them, and shall lead them nnto living foun- 
tains of waters, and God shall wipe away all 
tears from their eyes. 

Surely, it will be a great deliverance to be 
made free from all the evils of this life. But the 
Bible, if I read it aright, speaks of heaven as 
conferring upon its inhabitants also something 
more positive, a still higher glory and blessed- 
ness. The minds of glorified saints will doubt- 
less be greatly enlarged, and their knowledge 
vastly increased. One of the greatest of phi- 
losophers confessed himself to be but a child in 
knowledge, and another, equally honored for his 
wisdom, declared that " what we know is finite, 
what we do not know is infinite." But in the 
life to come, the intellects of the righteous will 
increase in vigor, their views will become more 
accurate, and their knowledge more extensive. 
God will explain to them the mysteries of na- 
ture, of providence, and of redemption. He will 
reveal Himself to them, and this will be the most 
wonderful and delightful part of their knowledge. 
Him they will never find out unto perfection, 
but will continually discover in his nature and 
his attributes something ever new, something to 



DEATH FOLLOWED BY ETERNAL LIFE. 121 

admire, to adore, to rejoice in through all eter- 
nity. Let the infidel * envy the dog beneath his 
table, and wish himself were a brute, that so he 
might not be immortal and responsible ; but I 
will rejoice that God has given me a mind which 
can study Him and his works, and can glorify 
and enjoy Him forever. 

Moreover, heaven is a holy place. And God 
be praised that it is so ! If permitted to enter 
it I shall then be delivered from this body of 
death. I shall no longer have occasion to mourn 
over those sins which now tarnish my best du- 
ties, — which mar my peace and grieve the Spirit 
from my heart. I shall no longer be insensible 
to God's mercies, or distrustful of his promises, 
or disobedient to his commands. Well did an 
old divine say : " As the Lord Jesus, when he 
had called Lazarus from the grave, had compas- 
sion, and could not see him wrapped in his grave- 
clothes, but commanded, saying, ' Loose him and 
let him go,' so He, when he hath called us from 

* Doddridge records a confession of the noted Col. Gardi- 
ner, that, while surrounded by his boon companions, and en- 
gaged in ridiculing the Bible and blaspheming God, and 
while toasted by his friends as the happiest man living, he 
was often perfectly wretched, and, in his forebodings of eter- 
nity, envied the condition of the dog sleeping under his table. 
F 



122 thougitts for the afflicted. 

the grave of our sins and from the literal grave 
at the last, not suffering us to drag about us the 
relics of sin and corruption, will say to his an- 
gels : ' Loose them and let them go ; let them go 
to the eternal mansions ; robe them in garments 
of holiness, and let them be forever with the 
Lord.' " 

How cheering the thought that on entering 
heaven I shall never sin again, nor be disturbed 
with the fear of sinning! All my thoughts, 
emotions, and desires, will be continually, spon- 
taneously holy. I shall behold my Redeemer's 
face in righteousness, and awake satisfied with 
his likeness. 

But there will be others to share with me in 
this glory and joy. Heaven is often set forth in 
Scripture as a social state, as a family, a general 
assembly, a kingdom, a feast, &c. There are 
passages, too, which appear to teach that kin- 
dred and friends, being kindred also in Christ, 
will meet and recognize each other in glory, and 
that their joy will be greatly enhanced by being 
shared together, and by their reviewing with one 
another all the way in which the Lord had led 
them. The imperfections of good men, and the 
follies and vices of the bad, and the manifold 



DEATH FOLLOWED BY ETERNAL LTEE. 123 

sorrows of life which now mar the happiness of 
society, will there be unknown. The wicked 
will cease from troubling, and the redeemed will 
he perfect and immortal, and fitted in every way 
to be helpers together of each other's joy. 

The society of heaven will be composed of 
persons from all ages and all parts of the world. 
Righteous men who lived under the Patriarchal, 
the Mosaic, and the Christian dispensations, will 
then meet together and speak of the wonderful 
works of God. They will come from the north 
and the south, from the land and the sea, and be 
welcomed into the heavenly mansions, one in 
Christ Jesus, and form an harmonious and bliss- 
ful society. Oh ! the glorious estate of the re- 
deemed. I wonder not that good men have at 
all times been transported with this view of 
heaven. Baxter, filled with unwonted fervor by 
his theme, exclaims : " We shall join with Moses 
in his song, with David in his psalms of praise, 
and with all the redeemed in the song of the 
Lamb forever. We shall see Enoch walking 
with God, Noah enjoying the end of his singu- 
larity, Job of his patience, and all the saints the 
end of their faith." Another heavenly-minded 
man writes as though he were gazing full upon 



124 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

the bright throng: "The Phillippian jailer is 
there ; and there is the Ethiopian treasurer. 
David has not laid" aside his harp, and there is 
still a field for Isaac to meditate. Solomon has 
still the eagle eye which searchesnature's nooks, 
and scans the infinitude of things ; and Moses 
retains that meek aspect to which no future was 
anxious, and no spot suspicious, for every place 
and every future was filled by a covenant God." 

And Bunyan surpasses himself, saying : "ISTow 
just as the gates were opened, I looked in and 
behold, the city shone like the sun : the streets 
also were paved with gold, and in them walked 
many men with crowns on their heads, palms in 
their hands, and golden harps to sing praises 
withal. There were, also, of them that had 
wings, and they answered one another without 
intermission, saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord. 
And after that they shut up the gates ; which 
when I had seen I wished myself among them." 

But what are saints and angels without the 
Saviour ? The world without its sun. " The 
Lamb is the light thereof." All eyes are fixed 
on his radiant form ; all hearts burn to adore 
him ; all lips speak his praise. Oh ! who can ad- 
equately express their holy transport as they 



DEATH FOLLOWED BV ETERNAL LIFiC. 125 

stand in the actual presence of Him whom they 
had hitherto known only as they had read of 
him, or beheld in his works, or seen by an un- 
steady faith ; the Being who had died for them, 
and risen from the dead in their behalf, and sent 
his spirit to renew and sanctify their hearts; 
who. had borne with and forgiven their way ward- 
ness and follies ; who had sustained them in all 
the trials of their earthly pilgrimage, and 
brought them safe to heaven ! As they gaze 
upon his glorified body, still bearing the marks 
of the cross, and as he unfolds to them more and 
more of the plan of redemption, what wonder 
that heaven echoes with their song : " Unto Him 
that loved us, and washed us from our sins in 
his own blood, and hath made us kings and 
priests unto God and the Father, to Him be glo- 
ry and dominion forever and ever ! " 

They praise God; and oh! what ascriptions 
they render him. They do not sit down, as mere 
passive recipients of joy — spiritual voluptua- 
ries — but they " serve Him, day and night, in 
his temple." They are employed in studying 
his works of nature, of providence, and of grace; 
they fly abroad on errands of mercy, striking 
their harps and filling the air with rapturous 



126 THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

songs. Wonderful, wonderful ! They " serve 
Him " continually, and yet " they rest from their 
labors ! " But this is all one, for God in these 
different ways would reveal to every aptitude, 
and every grade of human understanding, the 
various and blissful employments of the re- 
deemed in heaven. 

And all that constitutes the happiness of the 
future world is eternal. It is an " enduring sub- 
stance," " a continuing city," " eternal life." 
This is the crowning consideration. This makes 
heaven perfect, and makes it meet every desire, 
and hope, and aspiration of my heart. Thanks 
be to God that the inheritance of the saints is 
incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading. Eter- 
nal, is inscribed on their bodies, their minds, 
their residence, their employments, their socie- 
ty, and on everything which contributes to their 
happiness. In God's presence there is fullness 
of joy, and at his right hand are pleasures for- 
e verm ore. 

Such, or something like to these, we suppose, 
would be the musings of a thoughtful Christian 
on the future life. And is it not a Life, indeed, 
that follows his death ! Who will not be thank- 
ful that God has prepared such a rest for his 



DEATH FOLLOWED BY ETERNAL LIFE. 127 

people; that while we are surrounded by me- 
mentoes of death, and bear about its seeds in 
our own bodies, God has provided for us eternal 
life ! Oh, what a reversion to creatures so un- 
worthy ! 

Let us occupy our thoughts more habitually 
with the concerns of another world. To do so 
will not mar our happiness, nor, as some seem to 
fear, hasten the approach of death. It will serve 
to bring heaven nearer to our conceptions, and 
make it appear to be, what it truly is, a blessed 
reality. Living thus, close upon its borders, we 
shall be less engrossed with the vanities of this 
world, shall imbibe more of the spirit of heaven, 
and be indulged with many a glimpse of its glo- 
ries and many a foretaste of its joys. 

"We mourn, it may be, the loss of Christian 
friends. But one glance into heaven shows them 
to us there, not dead, but living, and inexpressi- 
bly happy. There they are, safely across the 
dreaded river, welcomed by sainted friends, 
dwelling in the mansions which Christ had pre- 
pared, and in the very presence of God and the 
Lamb. 

AVe sometimes think of our own death with 
apprehension and dread. But on looking across 



128 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

the dark valley to the glories beyond, we almost 
forget the grave, or think of it only to smile at 
its terrors. We see that God never designed to 
keep his children here forever ; that he has some- 
thing far better in store for them on high, that 
while there is. much upon the earth that is desi- 
rable and goodly to behold, so long as he appoints 
our stay here, yet, our real good, our highest 
glory and happiness is in the life to come. There, 
there is the great consummation ! There sin is 
no more, death is no more. They are swallowed 
up of eternal life. " I reckon that the sufferings 
of this present time are not worthy to be com- 
pared with the glory that shall be revealed in 
us." Let us be " followers of them who through 
faith and patience inherit the promises." 



THE HEAVENLY RECOGNITION, 



My Dear Friend : 

Your letter lately received, in which you speak 
of the recognition .of pious friends in the future 
world, has furnished me an interesting subject 
of reflection. You say that you hope and feel 
that you shall meet your sainted dead in heaven, 
though you are not able to give a formal and 
satisfactory reason for your faith. I shall hardly 
be able to meet your expectations in this matter, 
but as you desire it, I will give you my views 
upon the subject. 

It is interesting to notice how universally this 
doctrine has been believed. As a classical schol- 
ar you will at once recall the many interviews 
which Homer describes between the shades of 
kindred and friends in the world of spirits. Also 
the words of Socrates : " Who would not part 
with a great deal to purchase a meeting with 
Orpheus, Ilesiod and Homer ? What inconceiva- 
ble happiness will it be to converse in another 



130 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

world with Sisyphus, Ulysses and Palemedes, 
especially, as those who inhabit that world shall 
die no more." You will remember the pathetic 
declaration of Cicero on the death of his son : 
" If I seemed to bear his death with fortitude, it 
was by no means that I did not most sensibly 
feel the loss I had sustained ; it was because I 
supported myself with the consoling reflection 
that we could not long be separated." 

But to come down to modern times ; — you see 
this sentiment inscribed on the monuments of 
every grave-yard ; the man of God expresses it 
over the remains of the dead ; it gives pathos to 
the funeral hymn, and it comforts the darkest 
hour of the bereaved. Now, may not this be- 
lief, so common even among pagans, be regard- 
ed as the earnest expectation of the creature, — 
as indicating a want of the soul which God 
might be expected most surely to meet in his 
word? And wherever cherished, may we not 
view it, if not as the bread which God gives his 
children, at least as the crumbs which fall from 
the Masters table ? 

Another general consideration of some import- 
ance is this : Our mental faculties will be es- 
sentially the same in the next world as in this. 



THE HEAVENLY RECOGNITION. 131 

If it were not so, — especially, if memory were 
destroyed, it would not only render our minds 
more imperfect than they now are, but it would 
take away all responsibility, for God as a just 
Being could not make retribution for a life that 
had been forgotten. And if memory is pre- 
served, shall we not recollect and therefore 
recognize those we knew on earth ? Is it not 
probable that the righteous will remember, 
among other things, that portion of the earth in 
which God had cast their lot, their Christian pa- 
rents and faithful ministers, their conversion, 
their trials and joys, their labors in the cause of 
Christ, and their successes, their sickness and 
their death ? And as friends here on earth de- 
light to review together scenes in which they 
have had a mutual experience, so, we may sup- 
pose, friends in heaven will find their happiness 
increased by contemplating with each other all 
the way in which the Lord had led them. 

Again, we are told, that at the judgment day, 
the whole race will be assembled together, and 
the history of every soul be revealed, in order 
that the justice of God's ways may be clearly 
seen and fully acknowledged by the entire uni- 
verse. Of course, we could not hear such a 



132 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

revelation of the character and life of those we 
had previously known, and yet not recognize 
them. And if we know them at the judgment 
(whether by a direct revelation, or by the simple 
exercise of memory,) is it supposable that God 
will immediately obliterate that knowledge ? It 
surely would not make heaven more glorious to 
have the past blotted out, and to have all who 
had hitherto been friends, meet as strangers. 

Turning, however, from these conclusions of 
reason, let us consider the argument as drawn 
more directly from Scripture. It is worthy of 
notice that the Bible frequently represents heav- 
en as a social state. And if Christians who had 
before been strangers will then know each other, 
much more will they who had formerly been ac- 
quainted. There is no apparent propriety in 
supposing their previous knowledge destroyed, 
only to be imparted again by a special act of 
divine power. 

Is there not also some intimation of this doc- 
trine in those passages of Scripture where Abra- 
ham and other Old Testament saints are spoken 
of as being " gathered to their fathers," " gath- 
ered to their people," &c. ? These expressions 
are not used in reference to the gathering of 



THE HEAVENLY RECOGNITION. 133 

their todies in one place for sepulture, since many 
of them were buried wide asunder. (See Gen. 
24: 9., 47: 29., 49: 33., Deut. 32: 50.) 

Notice, also, the exclamations of Jacob at the 
supposed death of Joseph, and of David on the 
decease of his child. In both cases it is mani- 
fest that they expected to meet and recognize 
their children in the future world. 

Let us now turn to the New Testament. A 
short time before our Saviour's crucifixion, he 
told his disciples, that on ascending to heaven, 
he would prepare a place for them, and at their 
death would receive them to himself, that they 
might again be where he was. And will he not 
as truly gather all his disciples together at the 
last into his immediate presence, and make them 
happy in their mutual fellowship? 

In the parable of the unjust steward, we are 
taught that those who have used their property 
in befriending the poor and suffering on earth, 
will be welcomed by them into heaven. 

In the parable of the rich man, we have a 
glimpse of the future world, and we there see 
that Lazarus was recognized by Dives. And as 
one has remarked : " If Dives, from the depths 
of despair, recognized Lazarus, most certainly 



134 THOUGHTS FOB THE AFFLICTED. 

will Christian friends recognize each other in 
heaven. If they are one in spirit here, as Christ 
himself prayed they might be, most truly will 
they be there. A common bond of love will 
unite them, binding them to each other and to 
God." 

In writing to the Thessalonians (1 Epis. 4 : 
13) the apostle comforts those who had been af- 
flicted, by saying, Though your friends die, you 
should not mourn as though you were not again 
to see them, for you and they will rise from the 
dead, and thenceforth remain forever united with 
each other and with the Lord. Let me refer you 
to one more class of passages (2 Cor. 1 : 14., 4 r 
14., 1 Thess. 2 : 19., Col. 1 : 28.) Writing to 
the various churches gathered by his labors, the 
apostle says: " For what is our hope, or joy, or 
crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the 
presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? 
Knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus 
shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present 
us w r ith you?" Do not these and similar passa- 
ges show that Paul confidently expected to meet 
and to know those who had been converted 
through his instrumentality ? It is obvious, from 
his frequent reference to it, that he thought much 



THE HEAVENLY KEC0GNTHON. 135 

and with delight of that future meeting, and that 
the anticipation comforted him in the midst of 
his labors. 

But without dwelling longer on this view of 
the subject, I will notice an objection which em- 
barrasses you, viz : the knowledge that some of 
their friends are lost, will mar the happiness of 
those who are saved. On the same ground, then, 
must you not object that God should suffer his 
saints to hear the final sentence of the wicked, 
lest it should make them unhappy? But they 
will hear it. The angels are happy, though they 
know that some of their former number are lost. 
Christ is perfectly happy, though he knows that 
some for whose salvation he shed his blood are 
lost. Our present views of God's character and 
plans are very imperfect, — owing partly to the 
weakness of our understandings, but still more 
to the corruption of our hearts. In heaven, God's 
wisdom and justice and benevolence will shine 
forth so gloriously, that our thoughts will be en- 
grossed with the contemplation. Our wills, also, 
iv ill have become perfectly accordant with his. 
The beauty and excellence of holiness, and the 
vileness of bid, will appear so amazing that we 
shall see clearly the ground of the sinners con- 



130 THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

deranation ; the enemy of God and of holiness, 
be he who he may, will have no place in our 
sympathy ; and at the sentence which consigns 
him to woe, as truly as at the acquittal and wel- 
come of the righteous, we shall say with all the 
spirits about the throne : " Just and true are thy 
ways, oh, thou King of saints! " 

You make another suggestion, my friend, 
which is of the greatest importance, viz : that 
while we hope for a re-union of Christian friends 
in heaven, a proper state of religious feeling will 
always lead us to regard this as only a subordi- 
nate part of heavenly happiness. The supreme 
felicity of the future world will be the vision of 
God and the Lamb. And if, at any time, our 
natural affections tempt us to forget or under- 
value this, let us, with Whitefield, bid them 
" stand back, and keep us not from the sight of 
our Saviour." Fervent as may be our desires 
and hopes to meet departed friends, let the ab- 
sorbing thought be that of seeing Him who 
loved us and gave himself for us. 

The subject of this letter is not without its 
practical bearings and uses. Its tendency is to 
elevate, strengthen and purify our natural affec- 
tions. It shows us that friendship, cemented by 



THE HEAVENLY KECOGNITION. 137 

piety, will be eternal. All other ties, however 
strong, will be broken when the silver cord is 
loosed. But the Christian may love his pious 
friends as ardently as his soul has power to do, 
and yet know assuredly that death will not chill 
his attachments, nor eternity outlast them. The 
separations of the grave will be short ; shorter, 
probably, than many which occur during the vi- 
cissitudes of this life. How true and beautiful 
the words of Baxter : " I must confess, as the 
experience of my own soul, that the ex}3ectation 
of loving my friends in heaven, principally kin- 
dles my love to them on earth. If I thought 
that I should never know them, and consequently 
never love them after this life is ended, I should 
in reason number them with temporal things, 
and love them as such. But I now delight to 
converse with my pious friends, in a firm per- 
suasion that I shall converse with them forever ; 
and I take comfort in those of them that are 
dead or absent, as believing that I shall shortly 
meet them in heaven, and love them with a 
heavenly love that shall there be perfected." 

At the approach of death we naturally shrink 
back and cling to the friends we leave behind. 
But if God's chosen time for us to die has come, 



138 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

it will not be impossible to convince ourselves 
that this is the best time, and that to die will be 
gain. Look up, oh ! trembling soul, to heaven. 
There is thy Saviour, He whom thy soul loveth ; 
there are shining ranks of angels, and the good 
of all times ; thy friends and kindred are there, 
waiting to greet thee with welcomes and con- 
gratulations. And though you leave many be- 
hind with whom and for whose sake it might 
seem desirable to live, you will go to many oth- 
ers in whose fellowship your happiness will be 
perfect and eternal. And those from whom you 
are now separated will soon follow you and re- 
main with you forever. 

In bereavement we have, among other conso- 
lations, that of David, that though we cannot 
bring back the dead to us, we shall go to them. 
Their corruptible bodies and ours shall be raised 
incorruptible, and be fashioned like unto Christ's 
glorious body ; we shall be again united, and 
our fellowship and joy will be unbroken and 
perfect. 

A firm belief of this truth tends also to bring 
the mind under the influence of spiritual and 
heavenly realities. God reaches the heart of 
many a sinner through the channel of his natu- 



THE HEAVENLY RECOGNITION. 139 

ral affections, — taking to heaven those about 
whom his heart-strings had twined, that he might 
by a sweet attraction draw him thither also. To 
the Christian in contemplation of heaven, Christ 
is ever the chief among ten thousand, yet the 
thought of pious friends there serves to bring 
that holy world near, and gives it a reality and 
distinctness which make it powerfully influen- 
tial on his feelings and his life. 

And not the least of the happy influences of 
this doctrine is the incentive it affords the Chris- 
tian to labor for the salvation of his kindred and 
friends. All souls are of priceless value, but 
we are bound to feel special interest in those to 
whom God has united us in the most intimate 
relations. These friendships now contribute to 
our well-being and happiness ; — Christian affec- 
tion cries : Oh ! let us endeavor to make them 
eternal. Forbid it that any whom we now honor 
and love for their external virtues and accom- 
plishments, or those whom we clasp as our own 
blood, should, through our fault, be ranked 
among the enemies of God, and so be missing 
from our side at the last great day ! Let us try 
the efficacy of prayer, and of a consistent life. 
Our friends united to Christ, as well as to us, 



140 THOUGHTS FOB THE AFFI.ienn. 

will be doubly dear ; we can share each other's 
joys and sorrows, help each other's labors, and 
at death, our friendship having " the rivet of 
eternity," will remain unbroken, and contribute 
an humble share to the joys of heaven. 



A REMINISCENCE. 



C was the youngest son of Christian pa 

rents. He was consecrated to God in his child 
hood, and was trained up amid religious influ- 
ences in the family, the Sabbath school and the 
church of Christ. At several different periods 
in his youth, he manifested much sensibility on 
the subject of personal religion, but being natu- 
rally gay, and surrounded by worldly associates, 
his seriousness soon disappeared. As he ap- 
proached mature years, his parents and pious 
friends felt great solicitude for his spiritual wel- 
fare, and made mention of him always in their 
prayers. And at times, their desires and exer- 
tions did not seem in vain ; for, when reminded 
of his religious obligations, he always listened 
with respect, and, not seldom, with tears. But 
his heart as yet clung to the world, and no 
human power could detach it and fix it upon 
heaven. 

From his youth he had manifested superior 
mnsical talent, which became more and more 



14:2 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

marked with his advancing years. His friends, 
observing the bent of his inclination and tastes, 
approved his desire to devote himself chiefly to 
music as a profession. lie soon became inter- 
ested in studying the highest order of musical 
compositions, and learned to perform on various 
instruments, almost without the aid of teachers. 
As his acquaintance with the works of European 
composers was extended, he became desirous to 
visit the continent, and to enjoy the superior ad- 
vantages there afforded for the study and culti- 
vation of his favorite art. His imagination, too, 
was fired with what he had read of the wonders 
of the Old World ; he longed to see them for 
himself; and so, at the age of twenty years, he 
crossed the Atlantic. Landing at Southampton, 
he proceeded by way of Paris, Brussels, and 
Cologne, to Hamburg, in Germany. In this an- 
cient city he remained for the greater part of a 
year, under the tuition of accomplished teach- 
ers. Here, and in other cities of central En- 
rope, which he occasionally visited, he had con- 
stant opportunities for attending musical exhibi- 
tions of a high order, and thus his love for the 
art and his abilities as a performer were highly 
cultivated. 



A REMINISCENCE. 143 

"When the contemplated period of his absence 
from home had nearly expired, he started for 
Paris, with the design of visiting the chief cities 
of England, and then sailing for his native land. 
His letters to friends in America, written about 
this time, breathe strong attachment to his conn- 
try and kindred, and express it as among his 
most ardent wishes to enjoy once more a quiet 
and permanent home among his native hills. 
Bnt these hopes were not to be realized. During 
the journey from Hamburg to Paris, he con- 
tracted a severe cold which settled upon his 
lungs, producing inflammation, which was soon 
followed by a profuse and alarming hemorrhage. 
An American friend residing in Paris, hastened 
to his bedside, and rendered him all the assist- 
ance in Ids power. lie secured the best medical 
advice, and obtained a kind and skillful nurse to 
attend upon his hourly wants. 

And here I am reminded of a circumstance 
worthy of particular remark. His nurse was a 
pious English lady, who had formerly moved in 
the higher walks of life, but was now compelled 
to obtain her livelihood chiefly by taking care of 
the sick. Shortly after being called to the bed- 
side of the young American of whom I have 



144: THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

spoken, her experienced eye saw that in all prob- 
ability he would not recover. She learned, also, 
that he was not a Christian, and, therefore, was 
not prepared to die. As she watched by his 
pillow, day by day, she often said to herself, Is 
there not something that I can do for the good 
of his soul, as well as for the health of his body ? 
I cannot bear to see him die, without speaking 
to him of Christ and of heaven. God may bless 
my words, and hear my prayers. Her plan was 
soon formed ; and, choosing a favorable oppor- 
tunity, she asked the privilege of reading to him 
the lesson for the day, as set forth in the liturgy 
of the English church. At first, he was reluc- 
tant to grant her request, but soon, in deference 
to her wishes, consented. After she had con- 
tinued this exercise for a few days, he thanked 
her for undertaking it, and earnestly desired its 
continuance. 

She then proposed to add a short prayer to the 
reading of Scripture, to which he also consented, 
and afterward wished it to be frequently re- 
peated. At the close of these exercises, he of- 
ten remarked that " the Scriptures sounded new " 
to him ; he wondered that he had hitherto read 
the Bible so little, or with so great thoughtless- 



A REMEOSCESCB. 145 

ness. During her prayers, his mind was deeply 
interested in the subject of her petitions, and he 
frequently responded with an audible voice to 
her entreaties for his forgiveness and salvation. 
The Eev. Frederic ]\Ionod, of Paris, also visited 
him a few times during his sickness, and found 
reason to regard him as a genuine subject of di- 
vine grace. 

Meanwhile, his disease advanced with steady 
strides, and all, except himself, saw that his clays 
on earth would soon be ended. His heart alone 
was full of hope ; and he delighted to think and 
to speak of the pleasure he should have, ere long, 
of reaching home, comforting the declining years 
of a widowed mother, setting a Christian exam- 
ple, and living a useful life. But death did not 
heed his vain dreams of recovery and of future 
usefulness. His disease had nearly done its 
work, and his physician and attendants, impelled 
by a sense of duty, told him kindly, but with 
plainness, that he could not long survive, and 
that whatever he had to do in this world, must 
be done without delay. At this announcement 
his mind was agitated with conflicting emotions. 
" I had at times suspected as much," he said, " but 
still hoped it would not prove to be so. Oh ! must 
G 10 



146 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

I die here, little cared for, in this distant land, 
amid these strange faces, with the ocean roll- 
ing between me and my home and kindred. Oh, 
my mother ! my poor mother ! — it will kill her 
to hear of my death." This was an outburst of 
nature, the overflow of a warm, impulsive heart. 
But after this first expression of natural feeling, 
a new order of sentiments and emotions gained 
ascendency, and higher words fell from his lips. 
God's grace enabled him to say : " Much as I 
love life, and home, and friends, I love God 
more. It is better, oh ! far better, to depart and 
be with Christ, than to live." On the day of 
his death, he charged a friend to cause his re- 
mains to be conveyed to America, and left to- 
kens and messages of love to be sent to his dis- 
tant friends. This being done, he apparently 
withdrew his thoughts from earthly concerns, 
and waited calmly for the hour of death. To 
his faithful nurse, he said : " One more of those 
good prayers, before I die ; " and during wor- 
ship his soul seemed rapt away in joyful com- 
munion with Christ. At length, he grew weak- 
er, and in his wanderings spoke of his mother, 
and then of his Saviour, and then of his brothers, 
and then of heaven and its glory, — nature and 



A REMINISCENCE. 147 

grace both striving for a place in his heart, and 
for utterance from his lips. And with such 
words, he died. "He died like an angel," said 
one who beheld him. " May my last end be 
like his," said another, in whose arms he lay as 
he ceased to breathe. 

The lessons and truths suggested by these 
facts are so obvious, that it is hardly necessary 
to indicate them. I will simply refer to a few. 

1. The importance of parental fidelity. It 
was not a vain thing that this young man had 
been dedicated to God in his childhood, that he 
was taught to fear his Creator, to keep His com- 
mandments, to repent of his sins, and to believe 
in Christ. Family worship was not without its 
hallowed influence upon his heart. Nor was it 
in vain that his parents prayed for him in secret. 
God was faithful who had promised, though he 
chose his own time and manner in which to be- 
stow his blessing. 

2. The inscrutability of God's ways. Why 
was not the subject of this sketch made a child 
of God in early youth ? "Why was he permitted 
to go abroad into a foreign land, without the 
shield of virtue in temptation, or where sickness 
and sudden death might fall upon him unpre- 



148 THOUGHTS FOB THE AFFLICTED. 

pared, and without the probability of his finding 
a religious instructor to direct him in the way 
of life ? "Why was he suffered to resist the vari- 
ous influences brought to bear upon his child- 
hood and youth, to pass through several seasons 
of special religious interest unbenefited, and 
then taken to Europe, to a chamber in gay, vo- 
luptuous, infidel Paris, and there, by the bles- 
sing of God upon the efforts of an humble nurse, 
made to experience (as we humbly trust) the 
transforming power of the Holy Ghost ? How 
different this from what man might have ex- 
pected and desired ! But Infinite Wisdom takes 
no counsel of man. "With our hands upon our 
lips, let us adore in silence, remembering that 
God's ways are not as our ways, nor his thoughts 
as ours. 

3. Encouragement to Christian faithfulness in 
our intercourse with the sick. Had that nurse 
cherished no higher sense of responsibility, and 
no deeper solicitude for the salvation of souls 
than many Christians entertain, she would have 
rested satisfied with simply doing what she had 
been hired to do, — to take care of his bodily 
wants. Being a female, and a stranger, and the 
sick man a high-spirited youth, she would havo 



A REMEOSOENOB. 149 

shrunk from all effort for his spiritual good. 
But she valued the soul too highly, and had too 
strong faith in the promises of God, to fold her 
arms in indolent despair. She began her efforts 
prudently, and prosecuted them patiently and 
faithfully, and God smiled upon her exertions. 
Let us learn to care more for the souls of men, 
than for their bodies, or even for their good-will. 
"Wisely-directed efforts for the spiritual good of 
the sick will not hinder their recovery ; or, if it 
should, the possible evil had better be risked, 
than to allow an immortal soul to exchange 
worlds, unprepared for the solemnities of eter- 
nity. Let ns be wisely faithful, and God will 
bless our fidelity. 



PART II 



SELECTIONS 



RELIGION A SOLACE IN AFFLICTION. 



If the Scripture doctrine of immortality is 
entitled to weight in the regulation of life, its 
influence is not less sovereign in dispelling the 
terrors of death, and consoling us under the loss 
of our dearest friends and relatives. "I would 
not have you be ignorant, brethren, concerning 
them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not as 
others who have no hope ; for if we believe that 
Jesus died and rose again, even so them also 
which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven 
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, 
and the trump of God. Then we which are 
alive, and remain, shall be caught up together 
with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the 
air.; so shall we be forever with the Lord. 
Wherefore, comfort one another with these 
words." And who can fail being penetrated 
with the divine consolation they afford ? If ever 

G* 



154 THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

Christianity appears in its power, it is when it 
erects its trophies on the tomb ; when it takes 
np its votaries where the world leaves them, and 
fills the breast with immortal hopes in dying 
moments. 

Nor are the words I have quoted adapted to 
support the mind of a Christian in the view of 
his own dissolution, only; they administer the 
firmest support amidst the breaches which death 
is continually making in the church of Christ. 
A degree of sorrow on such occasions, nature 
compels us to feel, and religion does not con- 
demn. At the decease of Lazarus, while his 
sisters were lamenting his loss, " Jesus wept." 
But the sorrow which a Christian feels in such 
situations, is mingled with hope. By the light 
of faith he traces his deceased friends into an 
eternal world. Instead of considering them as 
lost or extinct, he beholds them under the eye 
of Divine Providence. The period of their trial 
is closed ; they have entered into rest, where, 
sheltered from the storms of life and the dangers 
of temptation, their happiness is forever fixed 
and unalterable. Their separation is neither 
final nor complete. The pious living and the 
pious dead are still one family, under one head ; 



KELIGION A SOLACE IN AFFLICTION. 15 5 

and when he " who is their life shall appear, 
they shall appear together with him in glory." 

Kobekt Hall. 



Evert man shows fair in prosperity ; but the 
main trial of the Christian is in suffering : any 
man may steer in a good gale and clear sea ; 
but the mariner's skill will be seen in a tempest. 

Herein the Christain goes beyond the Pagan's, 
not practice only, but admiration. " "We rejoice 
in tribulation," saith the chosen vessel. Lo, 
here a ' point transcending all the affectation 
of heathenism. Perhaps some resolute spirit, 
whether out of a natural fortitude, or out of an 
ambition of fame, or earthly glory, may set a 
face upon a patient enduring of loss or pain ; 
but never any of those heroic Gentiles durst pre- 
tend to a joy in suffering. Hither can Christian 
courage reach ; knowing that tribulation work- 
eth patience, and patience experience, and expe- 
rience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed. 

Is he bereaved of his goods and worldly es- 
tate ? he comforts himself in the conscience of a 



156 THOUGHTS FOB THE AFFLICTED. 

better treasure, that can never be lost. Is be 
afflicted with sickness ? bis comfort is tbat tbe 
inward man is so much more renewed daily, as 
the outward man perisheth. Is he slandered 
and unjustly disgraced? bis comfort is tbat there 
is a blessing which will more than make him 
amends. Is he banished ? he knows he is on bis 
way homeward. Is be imprisoned? bis spirit 
cannot be locked in ; God and his angels cannot 
be locked out. Is be dying ? to him " to live is 
Christ, and to die is gain." Is he dead ? be 
" rests from bis labors," and is crowned with 
glory. Shortly, he is perfect gold, that comes 
more pure out of the fire than it went in ; nei- 
ther had he ever been so great a saint in heaven, 
if be bad not passed through the flames of bis 
trial here upon earth. 

Bishop Hall. 



CONSOLATION SOUGHT AND FOUND. 



Whe* the clouds of desolation 

Gather o'er my naked head, 
And my spirit's agitation 

Knows not where to turn or tread ; 
"When life's gathering storms compel me 

To submit to wants and woes, 
"Who shall teach me, who shall tell me 

Where my heart may find repose? 

To the stars I fain would reach me, 

There the God of light must dwell; 
Sacred teachers ! will ye teach me? 

Blest instructors ! will ye tell ? 
How my voice may reach that portal 

Where the seraphs crowd in throngs ; 
How the lispings of a mortal 

May be heard 'midst angel songs ! 

God and Father! Thou didst give me 
Sorrow for my portion here; 

But thy mercy will not leave me 
Helpless, struggling with despair; 



15S THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

For to Thee, when sad and lonely, 

Unto Thee, alone, I turn; 
And to Thee, my Father, only 

Look for comfort when I mourn. 

Nor in vain — for light is breaking 

'Midst the sorrows, 'midst the storms ; 
And methinks I see awaking 

Heavenly ht>pes and angeHforms ; 
And my spirit waxes stronger, 

And my trembling heart is still; 
And my bosom doubts no longer 

Thine inexplicable will. 

J. Bowkiwg. 



DIVINE CONSOLATIONS, 



There is a remedy for troubled and perplexing 
thoughts, — one remedy, and only one. This is 
not in mere force of will. Powerful as is the hu- 
man will, it is no match for the excited sensibility. 
The will can resist truth, motive, argument, ap- 
peal, — it can even resist the Spirit of God, and 
all the forces that Omnipotence arrays against it 
from without, but it cannot withstand the tumult 
of the mind itself when thought runs wild through 
the excitement of emotion. The helmsman is 
driven from his post by the surging billows, and 
as often as he attempts to regain it he is dashed 
prostrate and impotent upon the deck, or swept 
overboard into the sea. The will cannot govern 
in such a storm. And herein is an evidence of 
God's moral government over men, in that He 
can thus turn upon the soul a flood of memories 
and of fears from which it cannot deliver itself 
except by his good pleasure. 

The diversions of the world will not allay such 



160 THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

an excitement of the mind. "When the mind is 
agitated with excessive grief or fear, it loses all 
relish for worldly pleasures. These are a mock- 
ery to it. Every passion of the soul is absorbed 
in the present or impending calamity. The 
most intoxicating pleasures of the world are -but 
as vinegar and gall to one in the agonies of cru- 
cifixion. Even though for a while one should be 
diverted from his harrassing cares or griefs by 
some transitory pleasure, yet the cause of his 
painful excitement remains, and his trouble re- 
turns with a violence the greater for its brief 
respite. 

Neither can Time minister effectively to a 
mind thus disturbed. Time may have a sooth- 
ing influence upon grief, it may lessen burdens, 
quiet fears, and alleviate sorrows ; but time 
alone cannot restore the disturbed balance of the 
mind, or secure it against fresh outbreaks of an- 
guish, or fresh inroads of fear. 

There is but one remedy for distracting 
thoughts, and this the Psalmist found in divine 
consolations. " In the multitude of my thoughts 
within me, thy comforts delight my soul." 

The character of God gives consolation to the 
troubled mind, if that mind has ever learned to 



DIVINE CONSOLATIONS. 161 

look to God and to confide in him. Is the mind 
disturbed -with thoughts of personal guilt ? Does 
conviction stir its depths like a troubled sea ? 
The mercy of God, rich, boundless, free, a mer- 
cy that like a greater sea, vast, calm and fath- 
omless, swallows up all other seas in its stupen- 
dous tide — rolls in upon the soul a fullness of 
peace that " passeth all understanding." 

Is the mind agitated with doubts and appre- 
hensions for the future ? The goodness and the 
truth of God, unsearchable and unchangeable, 
bring to it an assurance of comfort and support. 
Is the mind perplexed with the providential 
dealings of God — with the prosperity of the 
wicked and the oppression of the just ? The 
infinite justice of God, beaming through the 
clouds and darkness that surround his throne, 
brings consolation and hope in the darkest hour. 
And thus, through all the fluctuating emotions 
of the soul, and in all its varying phases, there 
is in the character of God when fairly devel- 
oped to its view, some specific adaptation to its 
Eiipport and consolation. 

The government of God is a source of consola- 
tion to the troubled spirit. Indeed there is no 
true consolation that does not involve a recogni- 

I! 



162 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

tion of the divine government. The waves of 
care and sorrow will dash us every whither until 
we plant our feet upon the everlasting granite 
of the sovereignty of God. Here the Psalmist 
found relief from all his perplexities respecting 
wicked men. " Thy righteousness, O God, is 
very high. My tongue shall talk of thy right- 
eousness all the day long." 

It is not enough that one should believe in the 
existence of God, or acknowledge in a general 
way his attributes, — he must believe in the 
government of God as a reality, a present fact, 
and upon that he can lean with absolute assu- 
rance. The rugged, cloud-capped mountain that 
strikes him with awe, gives him a refuge and 
defense. 

The promises of God shed consolation over the 
troubled spirit. These promises are at once spe- 
cific and comprehensive. " The Lord is nigh to 
all them that call upon him. Call upon me in 
the day of trouble, I will deliver thee. Fear not, 
little flock, for it is your Father's good pleas- 
ure to give you the kingdom. "We know that 
all things work [are working] together for good 
to them that love God." — Well may such com- 
forts delight the soul ; rich, abundant, adapted 



DIVINE CONSOLATIONS. 163 

to its every want. Such strong consolation have 
they who flee for refuge to lay hold upon the 
hope set before them. 

But higher than all these consolations, and in- 
volving all these, is that which springs from the 
presence of God realized unto the soul. " When 
thou passest through the waters, I will be with 
thee ; and through the rivers, they shall not 
overflow thee ; when thou walkest through the 
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the 
flames kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord 
thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour." 
And is this indeed so ? Is God my Saviour with 
me as I go through the fire and the flood? 
What matter the perils of the sea, the violence 
of the^vinds, the madness of the waves, if Jesus 
is with me in the boat ? Though he seem to be 
sleeping, I am safe. He will arouse in time to 
save me. He will rebuke the tempest, and on 
the instant there shall be a great calm. Ah, let 
it not be that he shall rebuke me also for little 
faith. Christ engages to be with me ; and shall 
I doubt that he is with me ? Christ engages to 
support me, and shall I doubt whether he will 
support me ? Christ engages to deliver me ; and 
shall I doubt that he will deliver me ? He bids 



164 THOUGHTS FOB THE AFFLIOTEO. 

me cast all mj care on Him, for he careth for 
me. 

"And shall I still the load retain 
Which thou hast offered to sustain f 
No, at thy bidding, I will flee, 
And cast my burdens all on thee." 

My soul, there is coming to thee an hour of 
hurried thought, of quickened memory, of eager 
expectation ; the hour that shall part the vail 
and make the Present and the Future one, and 
pour upon the Past the light of eternity. Oh, 
then, in the multitude of thy thoughts, amid all 
thy self-upbraidings, thy remembered sins, thy 
conscious weaknesses, thy rising doubts and 
fears, may the consolations of thy Saviour's word 
and presence give thee joy. 

Jos. P. Thompson. 



CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. 



A Christian should never murmur and repine 
at the accidents of life. "We often desire the ac- 
complishment of a thing good in itself; we en- 
deavor to obtain it ; and when baffled in our at- 
tempts, are prone to repine. Let us remember 
that all such repining is nothing less than mur- 
muring against God. God chooses, in the wis- 
dom of his councils, either not to gratify our 
wishes, or defer their accomplishment, or take 
from us what we deem the richest of our pos- 
sessions : a Christian, therefore, should not re- 
pine at the overruling providence of, God. All 
such uneasiness, all such impatience, all such 
want of acquiescence in the Divine will, is sin- 
ful. O, how do we imbitter the cup of life, in 
thus stirring up its dregs by our agitated feel- 
ings ! "We seem to want our own will, although 
we daily repeat and say unto the Lord, " Thy 
will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven." 

Anonymous. 



166 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

It is a piece of that corruption -which runneth 
through human nature, that we naturally prize 
truth more than goodness, knowledge more than 
holiness. We think it a gallant thing to be 
fluttering up to heaven, with our wings of knowl- 
edge and speculation : whereas, the highest mys- 
tery of a divine life here, and of perfect happi- 
ness hereafter, consiSteth in nothing but mere 
obedience to the Divine Will. Happiness is 
nothing but that inward, sweet delight, that will 
arise from the harmonious agreement between 
our wills and God's will. 

CuDWORTH. 



"We are Torbidden to murmur, but we are not 
forbidden to regret ; and whom we loved ten- 
derly while living, we may still pursue with an 
affectionate remembrance, without having any 
occasion to charge ourselves with rebellion against 
the sovereignty that appointed a separation. 

Cowper. 



CHRISTIAN RESIGNATION. 167 



"When I consider how my light is spent 

Ere half my days, in this dark -world and wide, 
And that one talent which is death to hide, 
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more hent 

To serve therewith my Maker, and present 
My true account, lest he, returning, chide; 
"Dothjjod exact day-labor, light denied?" 
I fondly ask : but Patience, to prevent 

That murmur, soon replies, " God doth not need 
Either man's work, or his own gifts ; who best 
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best: his state 

Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed, 
And post o'er land and ocean without rest 
They also serve who only stand and wait." 

Milton, on his Blindneat. 



REST IN GOD. 



Christian rest may be maintained amidst 
trials and suffering. Here it distinguishes itself 
from anything which the world calls by its name. 
Worldly persons have their enjoyments ; but 
they are dependent on worldly things, and when 
these are broken or removed, the tranquillity 
ceases. It is the glory of true religion, that it 
can be firm and serene amidst storms of change. 
In days of prosperity, when all things smile, it 
is easy to maintain quiet of soul : but when skies 
grow dark, when friends are few, when health 
fails, when losses and bereavements and old age 
come on, and misfortunes thicken every hour, — 
to be tranquil then — to feel that all is safe — 
that the real portion has not been touched — that 
God is still the same, and that he is ours ; this 
is what cannot be comprehended by the man of 
the world, or by the formal professor. And yet 



REST IN GOD. 169 

it is true, and is exemplified in a thousand cases 
of distress and consolation. Were it not so, such 
songs as the forty-sixth psalm had long been 
blotted out of the psalter, as containing idle 
falsehood : whereas, generation after generation 
in the Church for nearly three thousand years 
has been singing with experience and triumph : 
" Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be 
removed, and though the mountains be carried 
into the midst of the sea : though the waters 
thereof roar and be troubled, though the moun- 
tains shake with the swelling thereof." If you 
would see the true victory over the world, visit 
the experienced Christian amidst his trials. At 
the first he may indeed be shaken for a little 
season, in order that he may the better feel the 
solid foundation under his feet : but at length 
he finds his footing on the Rock of Ages, and can 
cry ; " Lo ! this is our God ; we have waited for 
him, and he will save us : this is the Lord ; we 
have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice 
in his salvation." 

Many persons are sufficiently 

persuaded of the world's unsatisfactoriness, but 
have taken no steps towards the supply of their 

H 



170 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

great -want. You, let me say, are the very per- 
sons to whom religion ought to be welcome. It 
is the very repose you need. In vain do you 
weary yourselves, to procure rest by any other 
means. It is not in the creature. You were 
made to repose in God. You deny your souls 
their chief blessing, while you remain alienated 
from him. And how strange is the illusion 
which prompts your delay ! Your procrastina- 
tion is a putting off of the happiness which you 
might be beginning to enjoy, and which would 
be always the greater during your whole exis- 
tence, for your having begun now. Are there 
not moments when you are almost disgusted with 
life ? when your pleasures have no longer any 
zest? when compunction more than neutralizes 
your joys? when, in a word, you feel your need 
of God? Though there is nothing necessarily 
holy in these sentiments, they bring you nearer 
the borders of a religious life ; they should be 
seized on, as so many promptings to fulfil your 
grand obligation. Do you ask me what I would 
have you to do ? The answer is easy, and it is 
momentous. Return to your rest. Eeturn, re- 
turn ! O wanderer, you are in the wrong path. 



BEST IN* GOD. 171 

Every step takes you farther away. Never can 
you supply these cravings, or quell these per- 
turbations, but by coming to Him, who is the 
Infinite Portion and the Everlesting Rest. 

J. "W. Alexaitoer. 



HEAVEN UPON EARTH. 



. . . Since we seek how to live well and 
happily, there yet remain those positive rules 
whereby our tranquillity may be both had, con- 
tinued, and confirmed. "Wherein I fear not lest 
I should seem over-divine, in casting the anchor 
of quietness so deep as heaven, the only seat of 
constancy, whiles it can find no hold at all upon 
earth. All earthly things are full of variable- 
ness ; and, therefore, having no stay in them- 
selves, can give none to us. He that will have 
and hold right, tranquillity, must find in himself 
a sweet fruition of God, and a feeling apprehen- 
sion of his presence ; that whiles he finds mani- 
fold occasions of vexation in these earthly things, 
he, overlooking them all, and having recourse to 
his Comforter, may find in him such matter of 
contentment, that he may pass over all these 
petty grievances with contempt ; which, whoso- 
ever wants, may be secure, cannot be quiet. 

. . . What state is there, wherein this 



HEAVEN UPON EARTH. 173 

heavenly stay shall not afford me not only peace, 
but joy. Am I in prison, or in the hell of pris- 
ons, in some dark, low, and desolate dungeon? 
Lo, there Algerius, that sweet martyr, finds more 
light than above, and pities the darkness of our 
liberty ! We have but a sun to enlighten our 
world, which every cloud dimmeth, and hideth 
from our eyes ; but the " Father of Lights," — 
in respect of whom all the bright stars of heaven 
are but as the snuff of a dim candle — shines 
into his pit, and the presence of his glorious an- 
gels makes that an heaven to him, which the 
world purposed as an hell of discomfort. What 
walls can keep out that Infinite Spirit that fills 
all things ? What darkness can be where the 
God of this sun dwelleth ? What sorrow, where 
he comforteth? Am I wandering in banish- 
ment? — can I go whither God is not? What 
sea can divide betwixt him and me ? Then would 
I fear exile, if I could be driven away as well 
from God as my country. Now he is as much 
in all earths, his title is alike to all places, and 
mine in him: his sun shines to me, his sea or 
earth bears me up, his presence cheereth me 
whithersoever I go. He cannot be said to flit, 
that never changeth his host. He alone is a 



174 THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTKD. 

thousand companions ; he alone is a world of 
friends. That man never knew what it was to 
be familiar with God, that complains of the want 
of home, of friends, of companions, while God 
is with him. Am I contemned of the world? 
It is enough for me that I am honored of God — 
of both, I cannot. The world would love me 
more, if I were less friends with God. It can- 
not hate me so much as God hates it. What 
care I to be hated of them whom God hateth? 
He is unworthy of God's favor, that cannot 
think it happiness enough without the world's. 
How easy is it for such a man, whiles the world 
disgraces him, at once to scorn and pity it that 
it cannot think nothing more contemptible than 
itself. I am impoverished with losses. That 
was never thoroughly good, that may be lost. 
My riches will not leese me — yea, though I 
forego all, to my skin, yet have I not lost any 
part of my wealth. For if he be rich that hath 
something, how rich is he that hath the Maker 
and Owner of all things ? I am weak and dis- 
eased in body. He cannot miscarry, that hath 
his Maker for his physician. Yet my soul, the 
better part, is sound ; for that cannot be weak 
whose strength God is. How many are sick in 



HEAVEN UPON EAETH. 175 

that, and complain not ! I can be content to be 
let blood in the arm or foot, for the curing of 
the head or heart. The health of the principal 
part is more joy to me than it is trouble to be 
distempered in the inferior. Let me know that 
God favors me : then I have liberty in prison, 
home in banishment, honor in contempt, in loss- 
es wealth, health in infirmity, life in death, and 

in all these — happiness 

O the easy and happy recourse that the poor 
soul hath to the high throne of heaven ! "We 
stay not for the holding out of a golden sceptre 
to warn our admission ; before which our pres- 
ence should be presumption and death. Xo 
hour is unseasonable, no person too base, no 
words too homely, no fact too hard, no importu- 
nity too great. We speak familiarly ; we are 
heard, answered, comforted. Another while, 
God interchangeably speaks unto us, by the se- 
cret voice of his Spirit, or by the audible sound 
of his word; we hear, adore, answer him ; by 
both which, the mind so communicates itself to 
God, and hath God so plentifully communicated 
unto it, that hereby it grows to such an habit of 
lieavenliness, as that now it wants nothing, but 
dissolution, of full glory. Bishop Hall. 



DELIGHT IN GOD ONLY. 



I love, (and have some cause to lore,) the earth; 
She is my Maker's creature, therefore good; 
She is my mother, for she gave me birth ; 
She is my tender nurse, she gave me food ; 

But what's a creature, Lord, compared with thee? 

I love the air ; her daily sweets refresh 
My drooping soul, and to new sweets invite me ; 
Her shrill-mouthed qiiire sustain me with their flesh, 
And with their polyphonian notes delight me ; 
But what 's the air, or all the sweets that she 
Can bless my soul withal, compared to thee ? 

I love the sea : she is my fellow-creature, 
My careful purveyor ; she provides me store 
She walls me round; she makes my diet greater; 
She wafts my treasure from a foreign shore ; 
But, Lord of oceans, when compared with thee, 
What is the ocean, or her wealth, to me ? 

To heaven's high city, I direct my journey, 
"Whose spangled suburbs entertain mine eye ; 
Mine eye, by contemplation's great attorney, 
Transcends the crystal pavement of the sky ; 

But what is heaven, great God, compared to thee t 
Without thy presence, heaven's no heaven to me. 



DELIGHT IN GOD ONLY. 177 

Without thy presence, earth gives no reflection ; 
Without thy presence, sea affords no treasure ; 
Without thy presence, air is rank infection ; 
Without thy presence, heaven itself 's no pleasure ; 
If not possessed, if not enjoyed in Thee, 
What 's earth, or sea, or air, or heaven, to me ? 

Frances Quarles. 
H* 12 



SICKNESS. 



There is always much sickness in this world. 
No man can entirely escape it but by a sudden 
death, which calls him in a moment into eter- 
nity. So far as the truly pious are concerned, 
it is probable that the terrors of sickness are of- 
ten greater than the actual pains endured. Some 
sicknesses waste the frame without beclouding 
the mind. Others beget stupor, which destroys 
sensibility to pain. To him who has made up 
his mind to be sick, and not to murmur, sick- 
ness may, without a miracle, be a means of great 
enjoyment. It is delightful to a good man to 
find his principles capable of enduring such a 
trial as sickness subjects them to. The severer 
the sickness, often the greater the joy. Were I 
to be sent into a city in the land to find the hap- 
piest person there, I should not go to places of 
business, mirth or fashion, in quest of my object. 
I would be much more apt to succeed in some 
humble abode among the sick of Christ's flock. 



SICKNESS. 179 

I know a man, who says lie has seen four very 
happy clays : one was the clay of his marriage, 
one the clay of his conversion, and the other two 
were spent in sickness, away from home with a 
burning fever on him. The world, has seldom 
seen a more exemplary servant of Christ, than 
the celebrated Rivet. As a student, a writer, a 
preacher,, he was full of energy. Yet he said he 
" had learned more divinity in ten days' sick- 
ness, than in fifty years' study." Think you 
those ten clays were remembered with sadness ? 
Nay, even as they passed away, had they not 
great pleasures in their train ? The pious Iialy- 
burton, in a state of great weakness and pain, 
said : " Verily, there is a reality in religion. The 
little accmaintance I have had with God within 
these two days, has been better than ten thou- 
sand times the pains I have all my life been at 
about religion. These fourteen or fifteen years 
I have been studying the promises ; but I have 
seen more of the book of God this night than 
all that time. If I had my students about me 
now, I would give them a lesson of divinity." 
lie said much more to the same effect. 

Call to mind, also, the wonders of mercy shown 
to Payson. "Was Jeremiah Evarts a forlorn, an 



180 THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

unhappy man, when he cried out in extreme 
faintness and distress of body, " O wonderful, 
wonderful glory ! " Had he ever been happier ? 
"Was Dr. J. H. Rice an unhappy man, when he 
said, " Mercy is triumphant ! " 

But particular cases need not be multiplied. 
Every pastor sees them : every evangelical 
church furnishes them. If such be the manner 
of God's dealing with us in sickness, we need 
not dread it. Let it come. It has sweet mer- 
cies in its sharpest pangs. 

But if we shall not have such supports and 
joys, our sickness may yet be very bearable. 
God may indeed appoint wearisome nights and 
days of vanity to us, scaring us in visions of the 
night, or holding our eyes waking. Our bed 
may not comfort us, nor our couch ease our com- 
plaints. And God may hide his face from some. 
At least, their consolations may be small. Yet 
if they learn lessons of humility and self-abase- 
ment there, the issue may be as happy as if their 
eye had overflowed with the richest joys. Any 
thing is good for a man that humbles him. 

Or, perhaps, one needed some new lessons of 
the vanity of the world, or of the frailty of his 
')ody, and Jehovah taught them to him effectu- 



SICKNESS. 181 

ally. So the mighty man no longer glories in 
his might, nor the rich man in his riches, nor the 
favorite of the people in their idle breath ; but 
he is brought to glory in the Lord alone. Be- 
fore he leaves his couch, he cries: "O Lord, 
correct me, but with judgment; not in thine 
anger, lest thou bring me to nothing." Is not 
anything good for a man, that makes him see 
that all is vanity of vanities below the skies? 
Do not even the aged servants of God often 
need such a lesson before they are willing to let 
go of earth ? 

Well does Paul call the effects of sanctified 
affliction " the peaceable fruit of righteousness." 
This applies as much to sickness as to any other 
affliction. How softly does one, chastened by 
sickness, walk before the Lord. How quiet, 
contented, thankful he is. How strangely he is 
changed, but not for the worse. How tender 
are his feelings towards others. How strong his 
sympathies for those who suffer as he has suf- 
fered. How meek he is under wrongs. How 
constantly and sweetly does he look to God. He 
is no more like a bullock unaccustomed to the 
yoke, but like a weaned child. 

If we have been sick and recovered, let us in- 



182 THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

quire what use we have made of our trials. Do 
we still remember our pains? Are we thankful 
to God for our recovery? Are we more and 
more like Christ? When Hezekiah had been 
sick and recovered, he took time to write down 
his thoughts. Would it not be well to imitate 
him? 

Sickness may return at any time. Let us be 
better prepared when it shall make its next at- 
tack. When we must die, it is a great matter 
to have nothing to do but to die. So when we 
must be sick, it is a blessed thing to have nothing 
to do but to be sick. To lie passive in the hand 
of God, and know no will but his in such an 
hour, is a great attainment. 

It is only in heaven that the inhabitants never 
say : "I am sick." How happy they are, who 
have finished their course, and do not rest in 
their beds. Their warfare is accomplished. Je- 
sus has healed all their sicknesses. With his 
own divine hand, he has wiped away all tears 
from their faces. They sigh no more. They 
weep no more. How near each believer may 
he to that blissful state, none can tell. And who 
knows how many are there ? Many went there 
before the flood ; many between the flood and 



183 



ascended thither in chariots of fire : many have 
reached their home the last year, yea, many the 
last day, and some within less than an hour. 

Jerusalem, my happy home, 

Kame ever dear to me ! 
When shall my labors have an end, 

In joy, and peace, and thee? 

W. S. Plummer. 



DEATH. 



That I shall die, full well I know, 

All human life is short and frail : 
No lasting good can earth bestow, 
All portion here must quickly fail ; 
In mercy, Lord, direct my ways, 
That I in peace may end my days. 



When I shall die, is all unknown, 
Except to thy omniscient mind ; 
And lest, with life, my hopes be gone, 
May I from thee such favor find, 
That I may always be prepared 
For death, and for thy great reward. 



How I shall die, to ask were vain ; 

Death does his work in various forms: 
To some, with agonies of pain ; 

And some sink peaceful in his arms. 
Just as thou wilt; — if, when 'tis past, 
My soul be found with thee at last 



DEATH. 185 

Where I shall die, — I know it not ; 

Nor where my ashes shall be laid ; 
Only be it my happy lot 
"With saints redeemed to leave the dead, — 
Small care to me the place affords, — 
The earth throughout is all the Lord's. 

But when in death I shall recline, 
Then let my soul ascend to thee ! 
Through Christ's redemption I am thine, 
By faith, his glories now I see, — 
'Twill all be well ! I little prize, 
Where, How, or When, this body dies. 

From the German of B. Schmolke, 

by Rev. Dr. Mills. 



THE DREAD OF DEATH. 



The dread of death is natural to man ; but it 
was in his state of innocence, because death 
could not have entered paradise, without ending 
a life perfectly pure. It was right then to hate 
it, when it would have separated a holy soul 
from a holy body ; but it is right to love it, when 
it separates a holy soul from an impure body. 
It was right to shrink from it, when it would 
have broken up the peace between the soul and 
the body ; but not when it terminates their ir- 
reconcilable dissensions. In short, when it 
would have afflicted an innocent body, when it 
would have deprived the body of the power of 
honoring God, when it would have separated 
from the soul a body submissive to its will, and 
cooperating with it, wheu it would have termi- 
nated all the blessings of which man knew him- 
self capable, then it was right to abhor it. But 
when it terminates an impure life, when it takes 
away from the body the liberty of sinning, when it 



THE DBEAD OF DEATH. 187 

rescues the soul from the might of a rebel, who 
counteracts all his efforts for salvation, it is very 
unjust to retain towards it the same opinions. 

We must not, therefore, give up this love of 
life which was given us by nature, for we have 
received it from God. But let it be a lore for 
that same life which God gave, and not for a 
life directly contrary to it. And whilst we ap- 
prove the love which Adam fult for his life of 
innocence, and which Jesus Christ also had for 
his life, let us hate a life, the reverse of that 
which Jesus Christ loved, and attain to that death 
which Jesus Christ experienced, and which hap- 
pens to a body approved of God ; but let us not 
dread a death", which, as it operates to punish a 
guilty body, and to cleanse a vitiated body, 
ought to inspire in us very different feelings, if 
we have the principles, even in a small degree, 
of faith, hope and charity. 

Pascal 



GOD DETERMINES THE TIME AND HAN- 
KER OF OUR DEATH. 



"When we are in affliction on account of the 
death of some friend whom we loved, or some 
other misfortune that has happened to us, we 
ought not to seek for consolation in ourselves, 
nor in our fellow-creatures, nor in any created 
thing : we should seek it in God alone. And 
the reason is, that creatures are not the primary 
cause of those occurrences which we call evils ; 
but that the providence of God, being the true 
and sole cause of them, the Arbiter and the 
Sovereign, we ought, undoubtedly, to have re- 
course directly to their source, and ascend even 
to their origin to obtain satisfactory alleviation. 
For, if we follow this precept, and consider this 
afflicting bereavement, not as the result of 
chance, nor as a fatal necessity of our nature, 
but as the indispensable, inevitable, just and 
holy result of a decree of the providence of God, 



TIME AND MANNER OF OUK DEATH. 189 

to be executed in the fulness of time ; and, in 
short, that all which happens has been eternally 
present and preordained in God ; if, I say, by 
the teachings of grace we consider this casualty, 
not in itself, and independent of God, but inde- 
pendent of itself, and according to the will of 
God, in the justice of his decree, and the order 
of his Providence, which is the true cause, with- 
out which it could not have happened, by which 
alone it has happened, and in the precise man- 
ner in which it has ; we should adore in humble 
silence the inaccessible height of his secrets ; we 
should venerate the holiness of his decrees, we 
should bless the course of his providence ; and, 
uniting our will to the will of God himself, we 
should desire with Him, in Him, and for Him, 
those very things which He has wished in us, 
and for us, from all eternity. 

Pascal. 



As it is certain that God hath numbered and 
set bounds to our days ; so it is as certain that 
he hath appointed, in his infinite wisdom, the 



190 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

means that shall convey us out of the "world. 
If one dies in peace, and another is slain in war ; 
if one expires in his bed, and another on the 
scaffold ; if one perishes by famine, and another 
is cut off by pestilence ; if one is struck by 
thunder, and another is torn to pieces by wild 
beasts ; if one is drowned in water, and another 
consumed with fire ; in short, whatever way the 
separation of the soul and body is effected, it is 
not without the express leave of our Heavenly 
Father. Therefore, when we see the strangest 
accidents come to pass, and the most unex- 
pected and tragic deaths before our eyes, we 
should call to mind the saying of the prophet 
Jeremiah, when he beheld the plundering and 
burning of Jerusalem, " Who is he that saith, 
and it cometh to pass, when the Lord command- 
eth it not ? Out of the mouth of the Most High 
proceedeth not evil and good ? " Sam. 3 : 37, 38. 
"We must remember with Isaiah, that " It is God 
that forms the light, and creates darkness ; that 
makes peace, and creates evil," chap. 45 : 7, and 
this exclamation of the prophet Amos should 
echo to the very bottom of our hearts, " Shall 
there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not 
done it ? " chap. 3:6; that is to say, shall there 



■TOTE ASTD MANNER OF OUR DEATH. 191 

be any kind of affliction or death in that place, 
which God hath not ordained, and directed by 
his wise providence ? ^ 

There are those who argue against this opin- 
ion, very grossly. If God, say they, hath num- 
bered our days, and set bounds to our life, we 
labor in vain when we take so much pains about 
the sick, administer remedies to them, and pray 
to God for their recovery. In like manner, such 
may affirm, that it is vain for ns to eat or drink; 
and that it is foolish care to hinder mad people 
from casting themselves out of windows, or from 
swallowing down poison ; because, let them act 
as they will, they shall live neither a longer nor 
a shorter time than God has ordained from all 
eternity. But however plausible this objection 
may appear, it is most absurd and ridiculous, 
and can only proceed from the extremest igno- 
rance, or the most prepense malice; for it is 
self-evident, that when a man proposes to him- 
self any end, he does not exclude the means by 
which he is to attain to it; on the contrary, he 
presupposes them, and connects them together 
by a necessary succession. 

God had determined to save St. Paul's life, 
and the lives of all those that sailed with him ; 



192 THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

and this was revealed to the apostle by an angel 
from heaven; nevertheless, when he saw the 
ship-men about to flee out of the ship, he said 
to the centurion, and to all the soldiers, " Except 
these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved," 
Acts 27 : 31. In short, the means are subordi- 
nate to the end, in such a manner, that to offer 
to divide them, as to suppose them contrary, it 
is the height of folly and extravagance. 

Hast thou lived a great many years in the 
world ? Ascribe it not to the constitution of thy 
body, thy manner of living, nor to the skill of 
thy physicians ; but remember that it is God 
who hath lengthened out thy days, and go and 
humbly bow at his feet thy hoary head ; which 
the Scripture styles, " a crown of glory," Prov. 
16: 31. 

Art thou threatened with death in the flower 
>f thy youth ? Be not afflicted at it, and let not 
She least word proceed out of thy mouth, but 
#hat is seasoned with the salt of true piety. 
Remember that it is God himself who thus cuts 
diort the thread of thy life, and puts a period 
to thy mortal race. Thou hast as much reason 
to grieve that thou wast born so late, as that thou 
diest so soon. Instead of wasting thyself in 



TliEE AND MANNER OF OUR DEATH. 193 

useless complaints, and dashing, an earthen ves- 
sel newly formed, against the rock of eternity, 
adore thy Creator, and return him thy hearty 
thanks that he is graciously pleased to crown 
thee in the midst of thy course, and so bountiful 
as to bestow upon thee the wages of the whole 
day, when thou hast labored but a few hours. 
He is very merciful to thee, to transplant thee 
before thou hast felt the heat of the day, and 
the scorching of the sun. It is the gale of his 
divine favor that drives thee thus swiftly into 
the haven of salvation. Think not, therefore, 
that God's calling thee away in the bloom of 
thy youth, is a testimony of his displeasure and 
hatred : for to hasten to make a person happy 
is no token of ill-will. It may be, that God calls 
thee because he hath found some good thing in 
thee, as in Abijah, the son of Jeroboam, king 
of Israel, 1 Kings, 14 : 13. Because he loves 
thee tenderly, and thou art greatly in his favor, 
he will remove thee from the approaching evils, 
as he did Josiah, one of the holiest and most 
religious princes that ever reigned. Because 
thou walkest before him, and seekest to please 
him, by conforming thyself to his holy will, he 

will take thee up into his heavenly paradise, as 
I 13 



194 THOUGHTS FOK THE AFFLICTED. 

he did Enoch, Gen. 5 : 24 ; for fear the tempta- 
tions of the world should corrupt thy godly 
disposition, and thou shouldst be turned from the 
way of righteousness by the wicked artifices and 
suggestions of the enemy of thy salvation. 

Deeltncourt. 



THE HOPE OF A RESURRECTION. 



Let those mourn without measure, who mourn 
without hope. The husbandman does not mourn, 
when he casts his seed into the ground. He ex- 
pects to receive it again, and more. The same 
hope have we, respecting our friends who have 
died in the faith. " I would not have you igno- 
rant," says St. Paul, " concerning them that £ke 
asleep, that ye sorrow not as others who have no 
hope ; for if we believe that Jesus died and rose 
again, even so them also who sleep in Jesus, 
will God bring with him." He seems to say, 
' Look not on the dead as lost. They are not 
annihilated. Indeed, they are not dead. They 
only sleep ; and they sleep to wake again.' You 
do not lament over your children, or friends, 
while slumbering on their beds. Consider death 
as a longer sleep, from which they shall cer- 
tainly awake. Even a heathen philosopher 
could say that he enjoyed his friends, expecting 
to part with them ; and parted with them, ex- 



196 THOUGHTS FOB THE AFFLICTED. 

pecting to see them again. And shall a heathen 
excel a Christian in bearing affliction with cheer- 
fulness ? If you have a well-grounded hope that 
your deceased friend was interested in Christ, 
ponder, I entreat you, the precious supports af- 
forded by the doctrine of the resurrection of the 
just. 

Flavel. 



TO DIE IS GAIN, 



Mawt a time, the wise and good will of God 
hath crossed my foolish, rebellious will on earth, 
and afterwards I have still perceived that it was 
best ; usually for myself, but always for a high- 
er good than mine. It is not an enemy, nor a 
tyrant that made me, that hath preserved me, 
aud that calls me hence. He has not used me 
as an enemy ; the more I have tried him, the 
better I have found him. Had I better obeyed 
his ruling will, how happy had I been! And is 
not his. disposing and rewarding will as good ? 
Man's work is like man, and evil corrupteth it : 
but God's work is like God, and uncorrupted. 
If I' should not die until my dearest friend would 
have it, much more till I myself would choose 
it, not constrained by misery, I should rejoice 
and think myself safe! O foolish, sinful soul, 
if I take it not to be far better to be at God's 
choice, than at my own or any man's ! and if I 
had not rather that he choose the time than I ! 



198 THOUGHTS FOB THE AFFLICTED. 

Be of good cheer, then, O my soul ; it is thy 
Father's voice that calls thee hence ; his voice 
that called thee into the world, and bade thee 
lire ; that called thee out of a state of sin and 
death, and bade thee live hereafter unto him ; 
that called thee so oft from the grave, and, for- 
giving thy sins, renewed thy strength, restored 
thee to the comforts of his house and service, 
and has so graciously led thee through this howl- 
ing wilderness, and brought thee almost to the 
eight of the promised land. And wilt thou not 
willingly go, when infinite, fatherly Love doth 
call thee ? Art thou not desirous of his pres- 
ence ? Art thou afraid to go to Him who is the 
only cure of thy fears ? What was it but this 
glory to which he finally did elect thee ? "Where 
dost thou read that he elected thee to the riches 
and honors of this world, or to the pleasures of 
the flesh ? But he elected us in Christ to the 
heavenly inheritance, Eph. 1 : 3, 4, &c. Indeed, 
he elected thee also to bear the cross, and to 
manifold sufferings here. But is it that which 
thou preferest before the crown ? That was but 
as a means unto the kingdom, that thou mightest 
be conformed to Christ, and reign with him, 
when thou hast suffered with him. If God 



TO DIE IS GAIN. 199 

choose thee to blessedness, refuse it not thyself, 
nor behave thyself like a refuser. 

2. And surely that state is my best, which my 
Saviour purchased and promised me as best : as 
he bought me not with silver and gold. Did he 
live and die to make me rich, or advanced in the 
world ? Surely, his incarnation, merits, sacrifice 
and intercession had a low design if that were 
all. And who hath more of these than they 
that have least of Christ ? But he purchased us 
to an incorruptible crown, to an inheritance un- 
dented, that facleth not away, reserved in heaven 
for us. And is it heaven that cost so clear a 
price for me, and is the end of so wonderful a 
design of grace, and shall I be unwilling now 
to receive the gift ? 

3. That sure is best for me for which God's 
Holy Spirit is preparing me : that for which he 
is given to believers ; and that which is the end 
of all his holy operations on my soul. But it is 
not to love this world that he is pursuading me 
from day to day ; but to come off from such 
love, and set my heart on the things above. Is 
it 1'i love this life and fleshly interest, this vani- 
ty and vexation, or rather to love the invisible 
perfection, that this blessed Spirit hath done so 



200 THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

much to work my heart ? And would I now 
undo all, or cross and frustrate all his operations ? 
Hath grace been so long preparing me for glory, 
and shall I be loth to take possession of it % If I am 
not willing, I am not yet sufficiently prepared. 
4. If heaven be not better for me than earth, 
God's word and ordinances have been all in vain. 
Surely that is my best which is the- gift of the 
better covenant, and which is secured to me by 
so many sealed promises, and which I am di- 
rected to by so many sacred precepts, doctrines 
and examples ; and for which I have been called 
to hear, and read, and meditate, and pray, and 
and watch so long. Was it the interest of the 
flesh on earth, or a longer life of worldly pros- • 
perity, which the gospel covenant secured to me, 
which the sacraments and Spirit sealed to me, 
which the Bible was written to direct me to, 
which ministers preached to me, which my 
books were written for, for which I prayed, and 
for which I served God? Or was it not for his 
grace on earth, and glory in heaven ? And is it 
not better for me to have the end of all these 
means, than lose them all, and lose my hopes? 
Why have I used them, if I would not attain 
their end ? 



TO DIE IS GAIN. , 201 

5. That is my best state which all the course 
of God's fatherly providences tended to. All 
his sweeter mercies, and all his sharper correc- 
tions, are to make me partaker of his holiness, 
and lead me to glory in the way that my Saviour 
and all his saints have gone before me. All 
things work together for the best to me, by pre- 
paring me for that which is best, indeed. Both 
calms and storms are to bring me to this harbor ; 
if I take them but for themselves, and this pres- 
ent life, I mistake them and understand them 
not, but un thankfully vilify them, and lose their 
end, and life, and sweetness. Every word and 
work of God, every day's mercies, and changes, 
and usages, do look at heaven and intend 
eternity. 

God leadeth me no other way : if I follow him 
not, I forsake my hope in forsaking him : if I 
follow him, shall I be unwilling to be at home, 
and come to the end of all this way? 

Baxter. 



A GOOD MAN'S DEPARTURE. 



Tins^good man has drifted well- 
nigh across the ocean. The dim outline of the 
long-sought land begins to form a celestial ho- 
rizon. The cares and poverty, the sufferings of 
body and struggles of mind, the labor in weari- 
ness, the solitary journeys through the wilder- 
ness, these and all other toils and heartaches are 
rolling off, like the clouds of a scattered storm, 
and now already serve but as a back-ground on 
which to paint the rainbow. But brighter than 
any bow, shining from dewy drops, will, present- 
ly, be his glory, when, suddenly emerging, all 
heaven shall breathe upon him, and hundreds 
of those whom he had led thither shall gird him 
round about, to see the unutterable joy with 
which he will receive from Christ his final wel- 
come home ! 

It is a noble thing for any Christian to die. 
But under the whole heaven, does God behold 



A GOOD MA^'s DEPA11TURE. 203 

another sight so glorious as that of a true minis- 
ter ? That he might be first, he has learned to 
be the least ; he has ruled by serving ; he has 
sown in tears for his own good and for others' 
harvesting; he has concentrated his life upon 
others. He has loved, longed, prayed, wrestled, 
preached, rebuked in love and gentleness, per- 
suaded, hovering round his flock with paternal 
anxiety, that he might be able at last to pre- 
sent them faultless before the throne. And 
now he yields to another those upon thi§ side, 
and goes over to look for those that he led and 
left upon the brink of the river. 

H. "W. Beecher. 



THE OLD AGE OF THE CHRISTIAN. 



. . . We have looked with wonder and de- 
light on an aged disciple thus waiting till his 
change come. He is not exempt from the infir- 
mities and pains which beset this season of life ; 
but his mind is drawn away from them to fix it- 
self on the " exceeding and eternal weight of 
glory." He knows not at what moment his sum- 
mons may come, but he knows whom he has be- 
lieved, and is persuaded that he is able to keep 
the great deposit until that day. Christian hope 
does not allow him to give way under the dis- 
quietudes of life. It is his endeavor to show, by 
the uniformity of his cheerfulness, that religion 
can despoil even old age of its terrors. " Among 
younger Christians he sits as a patriarch who has 
experienced all the diversities of the disciple's 
lot ; has discovered the emptiness of the world, 
and has made what remains of the present life 
a meditation of the life to come. His great 
^usiness^ therefore, is to prepare for eternity. 



THE OLD AGE OF THE CHRISTIAN. 205 

But this he does without perturbation or servile 
dread. Long ago he has cast his burden on the 
Lord, and ventured his everlasting hopes on the 
promise of mercy in Christ Jesus ; and having 
been sealed with that blessed Spirit of promise, 
he looks into the future with a confidence foun- 
ded on divine authority ; having a desire to de- 
part and be with Christ. Such a condition as this 
is among the happiest on earth ; and it throws 
a radiance of commendation over the gospel 
which produces it. The Lord does not forsake 
his people. In those emergencies of life in 
which their strength is most tried, he may be 
supposed to regard them with peculiar tender- 
ness. And at length he abolishes death, and 
admits them to the glories of the eternal state. 
J. W. Alexander. 



HEAVEN. 



Holiness of Heaven. Heaven excludes noth- 
ing more directly than sin, whether of nature 
or conversation. " There shall in no wise enter 
anything that defileth, neither whatsoever work- 
eth abomination or maketh a lie." What need 
Christ at all to have died, if heaven could have 
contained imperfect souls ? Christian, if thou 
be once in heaven, thou shalt sin no more. Is 
not this glad news to thee, who hast prayed, and 
watched against it so long ? I know if it were 
offered to thy choice, thou wouldst rather choose 
to be freed from sin, than have all the world. 
Thou shalt have thy desire. That hard heart, 
those vile thoughts, which accompanied thee to 
every duty, shall then be left behind forever. 
Thy understanding shall never more be troubled 
with darkness. All dark Scriptures shall be 
made plain; all seeming contradictions recon- 



HEAVEN. 207 

ciled. The poorest Christian is presently there 
a more perfect divine than any here. 

O that happy day when error shall vanish for 
ever ! When our understandings shall be filled 
with God himself, whose light will leave no dark- 
ness in us. His face shall be the Scripture, 
where we shall read the truth. Many a godly 
man hath here, in his mistaken zeal, been a 
means to deceive and pervert his brethren, and, 
when he sees his own error, cannot again tell 
how to undeceive them. But then we shall con- 
spire in one truth, as being one in him who is 
the truth. We shall also rest from all the sin 
of our will, affection and conversation. We 
shall no more retain this rebelling principle, 
which is still drawing us from God ; no more be 
oppressed with the power of our corruptions, 
nor vexed with their presence ; no pride, pas- 
sion, slothfulness, insensibility shall enter us ; 
no strangeness to God, and the things of God ; 
no coldness of affections, nor imperfection in 
our love ; no uneven walking, nor grieving of 
the Spirit; no scandalous action, nor unholy 
conversation; we shall rest from all these for- 
ever. Then shall our will correspond to the 
divine will, as face answers to face in a glass, 



L'08 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. • 

and from which as our law and rule, we shall 
never swerve. " For he that is entered into his 
rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as 
God did from his." Baxter. 



'It is not eter- 
nal ! ' ought to repel and prevent our souls from 
seeking their happiness in this world. 

' U is eternal ! ' ought to attract and deter- 
mine us to seek first the kingdom of heaven, 
even if that kingdom were inferior to this earth. 

The eternity of unseen things proves their 
intrinsic excellence. They derive their eternity 
from an excellence which deserves to be eternal. 
The glories of heaven are full and perfect, not 
because they are everlasting, but they are ever- 
lasting because they are perfect. Its crowns 
are unfading, because they deserve to flourish 
forever; its mansions unfailing, because they 
deserve to stand forever ; its thrones unmovea- 
ble, because they deserve to endure forever ; its 
society undying, because it deserves to live for- 
ever ; its peace imperishable, because it deserves 
to reign forever ; its holiness unchangeable, be- 



HEAVEN. 209 

cause it deserves to last forever. For as all 
earthly things are temporal, just because they 
are imperfect, so all heavenly things are eternal, 
just because they are infinitely perfect. This 
is the moral foundation of future happiness. It 
rests upon the intrinsic and essential moral worth 
of all its sources ; and, therefore, cannot end nor al- 
ter, because holiness is its conservative principle. 
The eternity of things unseen proves the am- 
plitude and perfection of the work of Christ in 
heaven. When about to ascend there, he said, 
' I go to prepare a place for you.' And ample 
and glorious that preparation must be, seeing 
that nothing in all the prepared place will ever 
require to be altered. "What the Saviour made 
heaven when he sat down on the throne, that, 
heaven will remain throughout eternity. Yes ; 
all the unseen things which he has laid, up for 
them that love him, are eternal things. No 
crown of glory shall ever dim ; no palm of vic- 
tory ever wither ; no harp of gold ever break ; 
no fruit of the tree of life ever fail ; no fountain 
of the water of life ever dry ; no element or item 
of celestial bliss ever pass away ; but all things 
continue, like Christ himself, the same forever. 

What a work, therefore, was his in heaven ! 

H 



210 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

We judge of his atoning work on earth, by the 
many sons it will bring to glory, and fit for 
glory ; and thus learn to admire and adore the 
merits of that death which obtained for them 
eternal redemption. And thus we should judge ; 
thus we should learn. But let us judge, also, 
and equally well, from the number and eternity 
of the glories of heaven, the value of that life 
which he lived there, whilst preparing the place 
which he opened by his blood. 

The eternity of unseen things proves the per- 
fection of the sanctifying and ennobling work of 
the Holy Spirit upon the heirs of heaven. The 
redeemed will be fully prepared by the Spirit to 
enjoy all that the Saviour has prepared for them. 
There will be nothing in all the eternal weight 
of glory too high for their minds, or teo holy for 
their taste, or too extensive for their powers. 
The eternal light of heaven will not be too daz- 
zling for their eyes ; nor its eternal worship too 
constant for their strength; nor its eternal laws 
too spiritual for their hearts; nor its eternal fel- 
lowship too wide or too warm for their inclina- 
tion ; but they will be mentally and morally fit 
for all the bliss and business of heaven, and for 
an eternity of it all. Bobert Philip. 



HEAVEN. 211 

The Society of Heaven. In reference to tho 
society of heaven, it is well worthy of being 
considered, that in it will be found the greatest, 
the wisest, and the best, from every nation and 
of every age. It is one of the chief glories of 
heaven, indeed, that it is not confined to the 
great or the learned of this world ; but neither 
is it exclusive of them. While every humble 
and simple-hearted Christian will be admitted, 
however limited may be his attainments, and 
however undistinguished his name, and while, 
unquestionably, the grand distinction of their 
character is that which is common to them all, 
viz : their resemblance to God in the moral dis- 
positions and affections of their hearts, yet it is 
suivly an interesting feature in our future pros- 
pects, that in heaven we shall meet with those 
great, and wise, and holy men whose names are 
recorded in sacred history, and whose example 
has been thought worthy of being held up for 
our encouragement and imitation in the house 
of our pilgrimage. It is especially mentioned 
by our Lord himself, that when Lazarus died he 
was carried by angels into the presence of Abra- 
ham, the father of the faithful ; and what Chris- 
tian does not feel his spirit elevated and cheered 



212 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

by the prospect of meeting, not only the vener- 
able patriarchs and prophets of the Jewish 
church, but the apostles and first disciples, the 
confessors and martyrs, who in every age have 
witnessed a good confession, and in every land 
bequeathed their heroic example as a legacy to 
the church of Christ? Heaven is the asylum, 
the home of all these mighty and noble spirits. 
They appeared at intervals, and were often wide- 
ly separated on earth, but they are now met in 
that holy place to which, however unworthy, we 
also are invited to aspire. 

And 'if as holiest men have deemed there be, 

A land of souls beyond that sable shore, 

To shame the doctrine of the Sadducee, 

And sophists, madly vain of dubious lore 

How sweet it were in concert to adore 

With those who made our mortal labors light, 

To hear each voice we fear'd to hear no more, 

Behold each mighty shade revealed to sight, 

Apostles, bold reformers, all who taught the right.' 

Buchanan. 



"Wonderful Glory of Heaven. If earth, that 
is provided for mortality, and is possessed by 
the Mater's enemies, has so much pleasure in it 



213 

that worldlings think it worth the account of 
their heaven ; such a sun to enlighten it, such a 
heaven to wall it about, such sweet fruits and 
flowers to adorn it, such variety of creatures for 
the commodious use of it ; — r- what must Heaven 
needs be, that is provided for God himself and 
his friends ? How can it be less in worth than 
God is above his creatures, and God's friends 
better than his enemies ? I will not only be 
content, but desirous to be dissolved. 

Bishop Hall. 



Chief Attraction. There is associated with 
the hope of heaven, the prospect of again meet- 
ing departed friends, and the whole blessed com- 
pany of the faithful, and the holy company of 
angels. This hope is not only natural, but prop- 
er, as animating our faith, and as a consolation, 
given by God himself. But this must not be 
paramount. If so, though we shall at last meet 
our dear and much loved friends ; yet that meet- 
ing may be postponed till the soul more earnest- 
ly looks forward to the enjoyment of the Saviour 



214 THOUGHTS FOB THE AFFLICTED. 

himself. Jesus is the Captain of our salvation, 
and with the Father and the Spirit is the chief 
attraction in heaven. The society there is in- 
deed glorious, and the prospect of again rejoic- 
ing with our friends, and the spirits of the just 
made perfect, a cheering cordial ; but I doubt 
not that in the moment of death, the absorbing 
thought is, that of seeing him who loved us, and 
gave himself for us. This earnest, paramount 
desire to be with Christ, may be the last step in 
the preparation, even in an advanced, and es- 
pecially a bereaved Christian. Till this be im- 
planted, the love of the creature may be reign- 
ing with that of the Creator and Eedeemer. 
There may be idols in heaven sharing too much 
in our love. 

J. Burns. 



Paul's Estimate. In speaking of the glories 
of the eternal world, the rapture of the apostle 
does not escape him as the sally of the imagina- 
tion, as a thought awakened by the sudden 
glance of the object ; he does not express him- 
self at random from the impulse of the moment, 



HEAVEN. 215 

but in the sober tone of calculation. ' I reckon,' 
lie says, like a man skilled in this spiritual arith- 
metic, — ; I reckon,' after a due estimate of their 
comparative value, ' that the sufferings of the 
present time are not worthy to be compared with 
the glory which shall be revealed.' 

!No man was ever so well qualified to make 
this estimate. Of the sufferings of the present 
world he had shared more largely than any man. 
Of the glory that shall be revealed, he had a 
glimpse granted to no other man. He had been 
caught up into paradise. He 'had heard the 
words of God, and seen the visions of the Al- 
mighty,' and the result of his privileged expe- 
rience was, that he ' desired to depart and to be 
with Christ ; ' that he desired to escape from this 
valley of tears ; that he was impatient to recover 
the celestial vision, eager to perpetuate the mo- 
mentary foretaste of the glories of immortality. 
Hannah More. 



O, talk to me of heaven ! I love 
To hear about my home above ; 
For there doth many a loved one dwell 
In light and joy ineffable. 



216 THOUGHTS FOK THE AFFLICTED. 

O! tell me how they shine and sing, 
While every harp rings echoing; 
And every glad and tearless eve 
Beams like the bright sun, gloriously. 
Tell me of that victorious palm 

Each hand in glory beareth ; 
Tell me of that celestial calm 

Each face in glory weareth. 

O, happy, happy country ! where 

There entereth not a sin 
And death, who keeps its portals fair, 

May never once come in. 
No grief can change their day to night - 
The darkness of that land is light. 
Sorrow and sighing God hath sent 
Far thence to endless banishment. 
And never more may one dark tear 

Bedim their burning eyes; 
For every one they shed while here, 

In fearful agonies, 
Glitters a bright and dazzling gem, 
In their immortal diadem. 

O, lovely, blooming country ! there 
Flourishes all that we deem fair, 
And though no fields nor forests green, 
Nor bowery gardens there are seen, 

Nor perfumes load the breeze, 
Nor hears the ear material sound, 
Yet joys at God's right hand are found- 

The archetypes of these. 



HEAVEN. 217 

There is the home, the land of birth 

Of all we highest prize on earth; 

The storms that rack this -world beneath, 

Must there forever cease ; 
The only air the blessed breathe 

Is purity and peace. 

O, happy, happy land! in thee 

Shines the unveiled Divinity, 

Shedding through each adoring breast 

A holy calm, a halcyon rest. 

And those blest souls whom death did sever, 

Have met to mingle joys forever. 

! soon may heaven unclose to me I 

O ! may I soon that glory 6eel 

And my faint, weary spirit, stand 

"Within that happy, happy land 1 

Bowles. 



TO AN INFANT IN HEAVEN 



Thou bright and star-like spirit! 

That in my visions wild, 
I see, 'mid heaven's seraphic host — 

O ! canst thou be my child ? 

Our hopes of thee were lofty, 
But have we cause to grieve? 

O ! could our fondest, proudest wish 
A nobler fate conceive ? 

The little weeper, tearless, 
The sinner snatched from sin ; 

The babe to more than manhood grown, 
Ere childhood did begin. 

And I, thy earthly teacher, 

Would blush thy power to see ; 

Thou art to me a parent now, 
And I, a child to thee ! 

What bliss is born of sorrow ! 

'Tis never sent in vain, — 
The heavenly surgeon maims to save, 

He gives no useless pain. 



TO -^N' INFANT IN HEAVEN. 219 

Our God, to call us homeward, 

His only Son sent, down, 
And now, still more to tempt our hearts, 

Has taken up our own. 

Thomas Ward. 



EDUCATION IN HEAVEN. 



" The child is dead," said an eminent servant 
of God ; " blessed be God that I had a child to 
give at his call, and blessed be the Lord that he 
helped me to give her willingly." The adapta- 
tion of Christianity to the wants of the affections 
is one of the many proofs of the divinity of its 
origin ; and one of its most striking adaptations 
is the provision it makes for the support of the 
affections, under bereavement of their objects. 

Philosophy can only tell us that we must sub- 
mit to the inevitable lot of man. Stoicism would 
bid us eradicate the affections, that they may 
not become ministers of sorrow. Christianity 
would have us cultivate them. She would have 
us enjoy the exquisite happiness they are adap- 
ted to afford, and when their objects are removed, 
it furnishes for the wounds thus occasioned, a 
balm which ministers to the soul a happiness not 
inferior to that which has been removed. 



EDUCATION IX HEAVEN. 221 

There are facts constantly occurring, which 
illustrate this remark. The writer once called 
on a Christian father who had buried a beloved 
child. Though a man of keen sensibility, he 
was calm and even cheerful. He expressed his 
entire acquiescence in the divine will. " I gave 
him to God," said he, "from the moment of his 
birth, and I renewed the dedication of him daily, 
as long as he lived. Intended to educate him 
for God's service, but God has taken the work 
out of my hands, and I am content ; and, if I 
should not be regarded as unnatural, I could 
say I am glad of it. I have put the thing in 
my mind in this shape. If I had lived when 
Jesus was on earth, and he had come to me and 
said : " Tou want to have this child educated for 
my service. This sinful world is a very unfavor- 
able place to educate a child in, and with your 
best efforts you will make mistakes in training 
him. I will relieve you of the task. I am about 
to return to my Father, and I will take the child 
with me, "and educate him in heaven ; " — I do 
not think I should have objected to such a pro- 
posal ; I might have wept as I parted with my 
child, but I certainly should have thanked Christ 
for his condescension, and should have rejoiced 



222 THOUGHTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. 

over the glorious provision made for the educa- 
tion of my child ! Now the case as it is, does 
not really differ from that supposed. Should I 
not, then, rejoipe that I have a child educating 
in heaven ? 

Anonymous. 



THE LAND WHICH NO MORTAL MAY 
KNOW. 



Though earth has full many a beautiful spot, 

As poet or painter might show, 
Yet more lovely and beautiful, holy and bright, 
To the hopes of the heart and the spirit's glad sight, 

Is the land that no mortal may know. 

There the crystalline stream bursting forth from the throne, 

Flows on and forever will flow ; 
Its waves, as they roll are with melody rife, 
And its waters are sparkling with beauty and life, 

In the land which no mortal may know. 

And there, on its margin, with leaves ever green, 

"With ft3 fruits healing sickness and woe, 
The fair Tree of Life, in its glory and pride, 
Is fed by that deep, inexhaustible tide, 

Of the land which no mortal may know. 

There, too, are the lost! whom we loved on this earth. 

With whose mem'ries our bosoms yet glow; 
Their relics we gave to the place of the dead, 
But their glorified spirits before us have fled, 
To the land which no mortal may know. 



224 THOUGHTS FOE THE AFFLICTED. 

There the pale orb of night, and the fountain of day, 

Nor beauty, nor splendor bestow ; 
But the presence of Him, the unchanging I Am 1 
And the holy, the pure, the immaculate Lamb 1 

Light the land which no mortal may know. 

Oh ! who but must pine in this dark vale of tears, 

From its clouds and its shadows to go ? 
To walk in the light of the glory above, 
And to share in the peace, and the joy, and the love, 

Of the land which no mortal may know. 

Bernard Barton. 



THE END 



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